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Caring for emergency department patients in hallways has become the norm as hospital crowding has become pervasive. One approach to reducing ED crowding during times of high ED and inpatient census is to augment inpatient capacity by admitting selected ED boarder patients to hallways on inpatient floors, instead of boarding them in the ED. This approach essentially “shares the pain” of hospital crowding.
In a retrospective cohort study, investigators compared outcomes for patients who were admitted to inpatient hallways with outcomes for patients who were admitted to standard inpatient beds at a single U.S. academic ED between 2004 and 2008. Patients who did not require intensive care unit (ICU) or step-down care or high-intensity nursing ca…