Emergency Department Workload and Crowding During a Major Electronic Health Record Breakdown

The authors studied the effects of a 96-hour period of electronic health record downtime on workload, occupancy, length of stay, and admissions at three emergency departments (a regional trauma center, a community hospital, and a rural community hospital). The authors found that downtime increased staff workload and had variable impact on crowding in emergency departments; they emphasized the need for more/similar research to enable emergency departments to plan for similar events.