Applied health economics and health policy
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Appl Health Econ Health Policy · Oct 2015
The Robustness and Effectiveness of the Triage System at Times of Overcrowding and the Extra Costs due to Inappropriate Use of Emergency Departments.
Overcrowding is one of the most harmful problems for Emergency Department (ED) management and the correct estimation of time resource absorption by each type of patient plays a strategic role in dealing with overcrowding and correctly programming ED activity. ⋯ The implementation of effective policies intended to improve both efficiency and quality in providing emergency health services has to deal with the systemic problem of inappropriate use of EDs. Policy-makers should be aware of the fact that there is a considerable portion of ED demand for assistance that is inappropriate and that oversizing EDs with respect to the true, appropriate, urgent patients' demands, could bring about a further and undesirable rise in inappropriate assistance demands and, therefore, an increase in ED costs that are not consistent with their objectives.