Emergency department crowding

Health Management Glossary

Hospital Operations

Definition. Emergency department crowding occurs when the demand for emergency services exceeds the department’s ability to provide timely care.

Explanation

Asplin and colleagues proposed an input-throughput-output model that locates many causes of crowding outside the department, especially in hospital bed availability (Asplin et al., 2003). Systems thinking studies in Singapore show feedback loops between demand, capacity and policy (Schoenenberger et al., 2016; Kumar et al., 2025).

Crowding is associated with delays, worse outcomes and staff stress, and is best addressed through hospital-wide flow management.

Related concepts

Patient flow Bottleneck Length of stay Waiting time Forecasting

Read on The Health Topics

• Understanding Health Dynamics: The Role of Causal Loop Diagrams
• A Systems Thinking Approach to Future Hospital Strategy: Insights from Singapore

References

Asplin, B. R., Magid, D. J., Rhodes, K. V., Solberg, L. I., Lurie, N., & Camargo, C. A., Jr. (2003). A conceptual model of emergency department crowding. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 42(2), 173–180. https://doi.org/10.1067/mem.2003.302

Kumar, A., Lam, S. S. W., Chan, S. L., Xu, Y., Ge, Y., Gui, G. K. T., & Tan, H. K. (2025). Strategizing towards the future hospital: a systems thinking approach. Health Research Policy and Systems, 23 (71). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-025-01333-9

Schoenenberger, L. K., Bayer, S., Ansah, J. P., Matchar, D. B., Mohanavalli, R. L., Lam, S. S. W., & Ong, M. E. H. (2016). Emergency department crowding in Singapore: Insights from a systems thinking approach. SAGE Open Medicine, 4. https://doi.org/10.1177/2050312116671953

Cite this entry: Kurutkan, M. N. (2026). Emergency department crowding. In The Health Topics glossary. https://healthtopic.org/glossary/emergency-department-crowding/

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