Interventions to reduce overcrowding in emergency departments
an umbrella review protocol
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48492/servir0213.39977Keywords:
Critical Care, Crowding, Emergency Medical Services, Outcome Assessment, Health Care, Patient SafetyAbstract
Introduction: Emergency department overcrowding has become an increasingly important public health problem in the last decade and is described as the most serious problem affecting the reliability of health systems worldwide.
Objective/s: To determine the effectiveness of interventions and/or strategies to reduce overcrowding in emergency departments.
Methods: An umbrella review will be carried out according to the Joanna Briggs Institute recommendations (record - Brito et al., 2025). The proposed review question is: What is the effectiveness of interventions and/or strategies used to reduce overcrowding in emergency departments? The selection of studies, quality assessment, data extraction and synthesis will be carried out by two independent reviewers.
Results: We expect to include several studies proposing interventions and/or strategies to reduce overcrowding in emergency services, as well as studies evaluating their implementation and effectiveness.
Conclusion: This umbrella review will be essential for synthesising existing interventions and/or strategies and suggesting the most relevant for clinical practice, pointing to clear avenues for future research.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Ana Carolina Brito, Luana Fonseca, Margarida Figueiredo, Matilde Esteves, Diana Santos, Eduardo José Ferreira dos Santos
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