Strategies For Enhancing the Quality of Pediatric Emergency Care: Addressing Overcrowding and Patients’ Length of Stay

Abstract

Background: High quality healthcare is an essential factor in maintaining and preserving the lives of people in Emergency departments. There are some factors that affect the level of care in the emergency departments, of which overcrowding and long Length of Stay (LOS) are prime causes Both these factors affect patients’ satisfaction, cause delay in receiving the necessary treatment and cause the mortality rate to surge. Aim: The current research aims to reveal how to address problems such as long length of stay and overriding in emergency departments. This was achieved through studying the literature and picking the appropriate solutions in evidence- based practice. Methods: a review of the past literature to identify the strategies that can be used to overcome crowding and LOS in pediatric emergency departments. Scopus, Web of Science, Medline, PubMed, Science Direct, and Wiley online library were used. These databases were searched by the following key words “Emergency Department”, “Emergency Room”, “Crowding”, “Overcrowding”, “Length of Stay” and “Emergency Services”. There were more than 100 articles that met the above-mentioned criteria. Papers that are theoretical or conceptual in nature, as well as comments, letters, and correspondence and observational study in which no intervention is used, were excluded. Results: According to the ideal patient journey model, this model should be used, as mentioned in the literature section, in order to improve the level of health care in pediatric emergency departments. In our results, those strategies will be commented on in terms of their disadvantages and advantages according to our point of view. Conclusion: Overcrowding in the emergency department is one of the current challenges, according to the studies mentioned, as in order to improve the care of children and patients, different strategies of high quality must be followed in order to reduce overcrowding and achieve effectiveness and efficiency. Key words: Quality, enhancement, strategies, pediatric, emergency, care