• Mauricio Garcia-Romero, Claudia Geraldine Rita-Gáfaro, Jairo Quintero-Manzano, and Anderson Bermon Angarita.
• Departamento de Urgencias, Fundación Cardiovascular de Colombia, Floridablanca, Colombia.
• Colomb Medica. 2017 Jun 30; 48 (2): 53-57.

IntroductionAn emergency department (ED) is considered to be "overcrowded" when the number of patients exceeds its treatment capacity and it does not have the conditions to meet the needs of the next patient to be treated. This study evaluates overcrowding in the emergency department of a hospital in Colombia.ObjectiveTo compare the objective NEDOCS scale with a subjective evaluation by ED health staff in order to evaluate the differences between the two.MethodsThe NEDOCS scale was applied and a subjective overcrowding survey was administered to the medical staff and the charge nurse on duty 6 times per day (6:00 a.m., 9:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.) for three consecutive weeks. The results were evaluated with a correlation analysis and measurement of agreement.ResultsA median NEDOCS score of 137 was obtained for the total data. There was a moderately positive correlation between the NEDOCS and the subjective scales, with a rho of 0.58 (p (0.001). During times when the ED was the most crowded, 87% of the total subjective health staff evaluations underestimated the level of overcrowding.ConclusionsHealth staff do not perceive a risk due to ED overcrowding when the NEDOCS scores correspond to overcrowding categories equal to or over 5 (severely crowded and dangerously crowded), which poses a risk to patient safety and care.

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