Isn’t adding capacity (physical and staff) in areas of unmet demand the right way to address overcrowding in the ED and other units, long wait times and patient boarding?
Adding capacity to select services, without streamlining overall patient flow through your hospital, could exacerbate wait times for patients ready to move to the next stage of care (ED to OR, ED to inpatient, OR to ICU, etc.). If, after streamlining flow, there is still unmet demand, you may in fact need to add capacity. When, where, and how much capacity to add should be determined using data analytics in the context of a hospital’s unique characteristics. Check out our approach to determining capacity need.
