As a 8 year old kid, who could not do anything purposeful other than getting hurt randomly, I was rushed into a hospital's ED in India by my family who believed i was hurt seriously looking at all the blood that was coming off of my forehead. I started bleeding profusely and have blood running all over my face, before I could get to my senses that I just hit my head in a sharp steel object.
I was shifted from the car to the stretcher and to the bed. My legs were completely fine t walk but everyone was just simply concerned about the blood loss I was having. I was unusually calm since everybody around me was just tensed up screaming at each other and finally the moment came where the doctor started stitching the split on my forehead. My condition was not that of a serious one where I had to be on a bed that day or even be taken into the ED for that wound. A health personnel could have simply assessed my condition for what it was and could have treated my wound while I was sitting in a upright position. But because of the mental state of my family trying to save me, or at least that is what they were thinking and so I was rushed into the ED.
Reading about Vertical Treatment rooms this was the first incident that struck my mind. Lucky for me the ED was not overcrowded that day. Now if this was a case in larger scale hospitals in the USA with overcrowded ED's, I would be potentially occupying a bed in ED for two hours unless they have vertical treatment rooms.
"Low-acuity patients are most efficiently handled in a vertical treatment room—a space that allows for the patient to remain in an upright posture. It speeds up the processing of various patient types by treating and releasing non-urgent patients, or beginning treatment protocols on higher-acuity patients, requiring less space than a conventional ED exam room." (Michelle Mader and Kathy Clarke, May 2014)
I believe a combination of the regular ED functions and spaces with a crisis stabilization unit(the term introduced to us by Roberta Rakove in the discussion we had at the Mt.Sinai Hospital) and vertical treatment rooms could help several overcrowded Emergency Departments.
References:
https://mcdmag.com/2014/05/todays-er-designing-efficient-emergency-departments-in-the-21st-century/#.WnYbxainFPY
https://www.americannursetoday.com/works-ed-goes-vertical-improve-patient-flow-satisfaction/
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