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Hospital Emergency Departments: Bibliography (GAO-09-348SP, April 30, 2009), an E-supplement to GAO-09-347

GAO-09-348SP Published: Apr 30, 2009. Publicly Released: Jun 01, 2009.
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Highlights

This is an e-supplement to GAO-09-347. This document presents a bibliography of a literature review conducted as part of our work on emergency department crowding (GAO-09-347). As part of our work to analyze and report on information made available since 2003 about (1) three indicators of emergency department crowding--ambulance diversion, wait times, and patient boarding, and (2) factors that contribute to emergency department crowding, we conducted a literature review of 197 articles, including articles published in peer-reviewed and other periodicals, publications from professional, research, and other organizations, and reports issued by federal and state agencies. In examining the information made available since 2003 about indicators of crowding during our literature review, we also analyzed articles for what was reported on the effect of crowding on patient quality of care and proposed strategies to address crowding. In order to obtain these articles, we conducted structured searches of 16 research databases and obtained articles identified as a result of interviews with federal officials, professional and research organizations, and subject-matter experts, and through searches of related Web sites. We reviewed 197 articles, publications, and reports (which we call articles) on emergency department crowding published on or between January 1, 2003, and August 31, 2008. This e-supplement lists each article we reviewed for this engagement and is arranged in four separate sections based on the type of article: (1) articles reporting results of quantitative analysis, (2) commentaries, (3) articles reporting on literature reviews, or (4) other articles, which include articles published on or between January 1, 2003, and August 31, 2008, that were identified as a result of our interviews with federal officials, professional and research organizations, and subject-matter experts. This fourth category, "other articles," includes articles that are published by professional associations to report results of their surveys. Additional information about the methodology used in the literature review is contained in our report, Hospital Emergency Departments: Crowding Continues to Occur, and Some Patients Wait Longer than Recommended Time Frames (GAO-09-347).

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Community hospitalsEmergency medical servicesHealth care personnelHealth care programsHealth resources utilizationHospital bed countHospital care servicesHospitalsMedical care evaluationMedical services ratesMedicarePatient care servicesPhysiciansPopulation statisticsProgram evaluationProgram managementStatistical dataSurveys