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EM Day international survey on patient safety published in the European Journal of Emergency Medicine

For EM-Day 2023 we conducted 3 surveys about safety, for patients/general public, for professionals and for patient organisations. 

The survey (1) included 1256 responses from 101 different countries; 70% of respondents were from Europe.  Among respondents, 80% reported that monitoring devices were available, and 74% reported that protocols for high-risk medication and for triage (66.19%) were available in their ED. The area of greatest concern was the disproportionate imbalance between needs and the availability of staff at times of greatest flow, considered sufficient by only 22%  of doctors and 20%  of nurses. Other critical issues were overcrowding due to boarding and a perceived lack of support from hospital management. Despite these difficult working conditions, 83% of the professionals said they were proud to work in the ED. This survey highlighted that most health professionals identify the ED as an environment with specific safety issues. The main factors appeared to be a shortage of personnel during busy periods, overcrowding due to boarding, and a perceived lack of support from hospital management. The results were published in the European Journal of Emergency Medicine.

Dr Jim Connolly, EUSEM president writes in his editorial (2): "Amongst the headline results the authors found that about 90% of professionals feel that at times the number of patients in their ED exceeded the capacity of the department to provide safe care and that overcrowding was currently a regular, serious problem. Overcrowding is not just an issue of discomfort or loss of dignity but adds to inefficiency and carries a substantial risk of harm and increased mortality"

Read further:

(1) Patient safety in emergency departments: a problem for health care systems? An international survey

(2) With safety in mind