- Cardiac mortality is higher at Christmas and New Years than at any other time.
- Parties may be considered a risk factor for death according to research from the American Heart Association.
- Various studies report an 8% increase in the mortality of patients waiting in the emergency room for more than 6 hours after arrival.
The International Federation of Emergency Medicine (IFEM) and the Mexican Society of Emergency Medicine (SMME) called for the restoration of emergency care worldwide. Both organizations consider it essential regain control of hospital emergency services and ensure that no more lives are lost while patients wait to be treated.
Overcrowding and saturation of emergency rooms occurs when there is an increase and imbalance in the demand for patients. This affects the ability to work efficiently and/or the availability of beds within the hospital for those who require hospital admission.
Many patients and few medical staff
Research has shown that the saturation of hospital emergency departments harms patients and can lead to loss of life, as shown by a study published in 2022 by the Emergency Medicine Journal which establishes that patients who waited in the emergency room for more than 6 to 8 hours after their arrival have an 8% higher risk of dying.
The word overcrowding describes a situation where there are too many patients for the available space. Daily news headlines around the world bear witness to the harm to patients and stress to healthcare workers from this growing and deadly problem.
The Dr Ffion Davies, president of IFEM, says that “when emergency services are saturated and chaotic, there are delays in the treatment of patients and errors due to an impossible workload. This results in stress and burnout for healthcare professionals who strive every day to provide the best level of care possible. If the staff leave, the situation deteriorates further.”
Dr. Daniel Sánchez Arreola, president of the Mexican Society of Emergency Medicineaffirms that “given the increase in respiratory diseases in the December season, emergency doctors call for good use of hospital emergency services and avoid saturation.”
December, the busiest month in hospitals
It must also be taken into account that, during the year-end holidays in general, accidents that arrive at emergency rooms increase by 30% and deaths from heart disease soar by 8% compared to November. In fact, cardiac mortality is higher at Christmas and New Years than at any other time, and the holidays may be considered a risk factor for death according to investigations of the American Heart Association of the United States.
While these issues were present in healthcare systems around the world prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the emergency room situation has been a constant and growing phenomenon over the past three years. Of the 41 IFEM member countries surveyed in November 2022, 100% reported overcrowding in their emergency rooms.
Therefore, the IFEM and SMME ask that health systems guarantee enough space, better equipped emergency rooms and hospitals with more decisive procedures so that staff can better carry out their work and so that patients have some privacy and dignity.
The most frustrating problems for emergency medicine professionals are often caused by situations that are out of their control and beyond their control. emergency service. For these services to function efficiently, limited staffing capacity within hospitals should not affect the most valuable part of the system dealing with urgent illnesses and injuries.
“Hospital emergency rooms could function like an airport. Arrival patterns are often predictable, the time required to assess and treat patients is known, the staff and equipment required can be planned for. If something happens that causes congestion, the goal should be to get the situation under control and safe. Why, then, are chaotic scenes in the ER every day considered acceptable?
The most common cause of overcrowding is when the emergency department fills up with patients who cannot be discharged because they require hospital admission and the supply of beds is insufficient. Lack of bed availability within the hospital can be caused by a variety of factors, including insufficient staffing and resources.
Without careful data management and planning to protect the room, the end result can be catastrophic as a chain of consequences. Newly ill or injured patients experience long waiting times for an ambulance to arrive, as busy ambulances are kept waiting outside the ED, unable to transfer their patients.
The IFEM and the SMME call on all governments and health authorities in our country to implement local and national policies that address this problem and its causes that help protect emergency rooms and patients from the risks to those who are currently exposed.
Also read:
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Neurological emergencies: a challenge for public health in Mexico
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