Emergency Department Boarding Stories

"Our rural facility is the only hospital in the greater region that is capable of managing a wide range of conditions. Most of the other hospitals are critical access hospitals that have few services (no specialists, surgery, obstetrics etc.). It is normal for our hospital to be full and for most of our 25 beds to be occupied by patients waiting (at the moment 24) for inpatient beds as well as psychiatric patients waiting for placement (at the moment six).

The crisis is bigger than can be managed by a single hospital or even the medical system alone.

So, we have 30 patients waiting for a disposition in a 26 bed ED and a total of 51 in the department. There are few other options for our greater community. Comparable or more comprehensive facilities are hours away (and also often full). We are all doing our best, including the hospital administration, but cannot solve this problem. The crisis is bigger than can be managed by a single hospital or even the medical system alone. We need help from policymakers."