International journal of emergency medicine
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Nationwide optimization of the emergency department (ED) landscape is being discussed in The Netherlands. The emphasis is put mostly on the number of EDs actually present at the time versus a proposed minimum number of EDs needed in the future. The predominant idea in general is that by concentrating emergency care in less EDs costs would be saved and quality of care would increase. However, structural insight into similarities as well as differences of ED characteristics is missing. This knowledge and fact interpretation is needed to provide better steering information which could contribute to strategies aiming to optimize the ED landscape. This study provides an in-depth insight in the ED landscape of The Netherlands by presentation of providing an overview of the variation in ED characteristics and by exploring associations between ED volume characteristics on one side and measures of available ED and hospital resources on the other side. Obtained insight can be a starting point towards a more well-founded future optimization policy. ⋯ Our study shows that the ED landscape is still pluriform by numbers and specifications of individual ED locations. This study identifies associations between patient and hospitalization volumes on a national level on one side and number of ED treatment bays, ED nurse workforce capacity and available hospital beds on the other side. These findings might be useful as input for the development of an ED resource allocation framework and a more targeted optimization policy in the future.