Item Details

title

Moral Implications of Emergency Department Crowding

author

Brassard, Kimberly Lynn

abstract

Emergency Department (ED) crowding, defined as "an extreme volume of patients in ED treatment areas, forcing the ED to operate beyond its capacity" has become a public health crisis in the United States. ED crowding can lead to compromised care which threatens the moral values medicine has been built upon (Cowan and Trzeciak 2005). This thesis offers a brief history of the development of hospital based EDs to demonstrate the origins of ED crowding, then moves on to analyze the moral dilemmas posed by crowding. It examines the causes of ED crowding and potential solutions to the issue, and concludes with brief remarks about how the health care system might be reformed to alleviate the burden of crowded EDs.

subject

Emergency Department Crowding

Emergency Medicine

Ethics

Medical Ethics

Public Health

contributor

Moskop, John (committee chair)

Hyde, Michael (committee member)

Zelman, Stacie (committee member)

date

2013-06-06T21:19:36Z (accessioned)

2013-06-06T21:19:36Z (available)

2013 (issued)

degree

Bioethics (discipline)

identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/38562 (uri)

language

en (iso)

publisher

Wake Forest University

type

Thesis