Paramedic PapersHome Older people Rising ED boarding for older adults
Older people
Rising ED boarding for older adults
Emergency Department Boarding for Older Adults: The Impact of Geography, Temporal Trends, and Dementia Status
Annals of Emergency Medicine · Added 19 September 2026
US national survey analysis of 4.45 million admissions of adults aged ≥65 (2015–2022) — 85% boarded ≥2 hours in the ED, mean boarding time rose from 138 minutes in 2018 to 343 minutes in 2022 and roughly 501 minutes for patients with Alzheimer's-related dementia, with the worst growth in metropolitan areas and among those ≥75.
- Study type
- Cross-sectional
- Design
- Cross-sectional analysis of national survey data (NHAMCS 2015–2022)
- Participants
- 4.45 million weighted hospital admissions of adults aged ≥65 with complete data
- Main finding
- 85.2% boarded ≥2 hours; mean boarding time rose from 138 minutes in 2018 to 343 minutes in 2022, reaching 501 minutes (95% CI -20 to 1,022) with Alzheimer's disease-related dementia; each calendar year associated with 3.2% increase in 4-hour boarding and 15.3 extra minutes.
- Caveat
- US survey data with wide confidence intervals, especially the dementia subgroup estimate; in-hospital system issue.
- Bottom line
- Context only
Why it matters in Australia (Medium relevance). US access-block data we can't act on directly, but the off-stretcher delays it describes are familiar at Canberra Hospital
Learning goal
Understand how prolonged emergency department boarding affects older adults, especially those with dementia, in Australian hospitals.
More
- Topic: Older people
- Daily scan: 19 September 2026
Related papers on Older people
-
Bathroom jobs eat scene time
Among 26,058 older Japanese patients transported from home, EMS on-scene time ran up to 9% longer when the patient was found in the toilet, bathroom or kitchen and on higher floors, and shorter in corridors and gardens.
-
NAEMSP guidance: older adults after low-acuity falls
NAEMSP position statement and resource document on assessing and managing older adults after perceived low-acuity falls and 'lift assist' calls; abstract not yet available, so the specific recommendations can't yet be checked.
-
Direct geriatric admission depends on geography
Swedish register study of 8208 ambulance-transported patients aged ≥65 in Stockholm found only 7% went directly to a geriatric unit instead of an ED, with conveyance rates varying fourfold (4–21%) between hospital service areas and largely explained by distance, ownership and staffed-bed numbers.
-
Research priorities for prehospital older adult care
Modified Delphi study identified five high-priority research themes for older adult prehospital care, with falls assessment, prevention, and clinician training ranking highest across research and knowledge translation domains.