title: Interventions to improve the timeliness of emergency care.
abstract: With a persistent trend of increasing emergency department (ED) volumes every year, services are intensifying. Thus, improving the timeliness of delivering emergency care should be a primary focus, both from an operational and from a research perspective. Much has been published on factors associated with delays in emergency care, and the next phase in this area of research will focus on exploring interventions to improve the timeliness of care. On June 1, 2011, Academic Emergency Medicine held a consensus conference titled "Interventions to Assure Quality in the Emergency Department." This article summarizes the findings of the breakout session that investigated interventions to improve the timeliness of emergency care. This article will explore the background on the concept of timeliness of emergency care, the current state of interventions that have been implemented to improve timeliness, and specific questions as a framework for a future research agenda.
authors.affiliation: Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, USA. handeld@ohsu.edu
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Handel
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Epstein
authors.forename: Rahul
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Khare
authors.forename: Denise
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Abernethy
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Klauer
authors.forename: Randy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pilgrim
authors.forename: Olan
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Soremekun
authors.forename: Osman
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Sayan
mesh_terms: D003441:Crowding; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D058996:Quality Improvement / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017748:Time Management; D014218:Triage; D014481:United States; D057188:Workflow