Patient Experiences With Transfer for Community Hospital Inpatient Admission From an Academic Emergency Department

• Main Authors: Jonathan D Sonis MD, MHCM, Yosef Berlyand MD, Brian J Yun MD, MBA, MPH, Emily L Aaronson MD, MPH, Ali S Raja MD, MBA, MPH, David F M Brown MD, Steven B Pestka MD, Benjamin A White MD
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2020-12-01
• Series: Journal of Patient Experience
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1177/2374373520949168
• ISSN: 2374-3735; 2374-3743

Emergency department (ED) crowding continues to be a major challenge and has important ramifications for patient care quality. One strategy to decrease ED crowding has been to implement alternative pathways to traditional hospital admission. Through a survey-based retrospective cohort study, we aimed to assess the patient experience for those who agreed to transfer and admission to an affiliated community hospital from a large, academic center’s ED. In all, 85% of participants rated their overall experience as either great or good, 92% did not find it hard to make the decision to be transferred, and 95% found the transfer process itself to be easy.