2010). While there is of course a mandate for emergency departments to provide necessary care to any individual that requires it, more efficient and effective care can be proved when crowding in the department is kept to a minimum and releases of boarded patients are made as soon as possible (McCarthy et al. 2009; Bair et al. 2010). Crowding itself was seen to have an effect on waiting room and boarding times, and though treatment was not typically delayed due to crowding -- at least not nearly to the same levels as boarding times -- but the efficacy of treatment and the overall efficiency of a given emergency department's operations were greatly enhanced by a lack of patient crowding, which can be conversely affected by decreasing boarding times (McCarthy et al. 2009). The desired outcomes as stated is the improvement of safety and health outcomes for boarded...

Again, research substantiates the possibility that these outcomes are achievable through a reduction in crowding and reduced boarding times (McCarthy et al. 2009; Bair et al. 2010). Further research directly investigating this PICO question would help to establish the legitimacy of this approach.