When patients are admitted to an inpatient service from the ED and no inpatient beds are immediately available for the patient, the patient may spend hours in the ED waiting for the inpatient bed. This is termed ED boarding. Although the admitted patient might be physically stationed in the ED, it is generally accepted that once the inpatient team of doctors has entered its first admission order, care of the patient has been transferred from the ED providers to the inpatient providers. Thereafter, the ED providers have a responsibility to help stabilize an admitted patient whose condition then deteriorates. The ED doctors also have a responsibility to notify the inpatient team of a deterioration of a patient’s condition because the inpatient team has primary responsibility for overall management once the patient has already been admitted to its service. In the event of a change in a patient’s status or condition, the ED team responding to such a change must communicate the change to the inpatient team.
Emergency department boarding medical expert witness specialties include emergenecy medicine and medical toxicology.