A new study published in the August issue of Annals of Emergency Medicine confirms that most emergency rooms are overcrowded and have staffing shortages.  The study surveyed emergency departments around the country and found 59 percent routinely used hallways for treatment areas, and 73 percent �board� patients in emergency departments until a regular bed opened up.  Study author Doctor Sandra Schneider: 

�It�s really alarming that our nation�s emergency departments lack the physical space to adequately care for patients.�

The study also revealed that many emergency rooms are treating more patients than can be handled by the medical staff on hand.  Doctor George Molzen is President of the American College of Emergency Physicians:

�These patients that are boarded in the emergency department are usually critically ill.  That means they�re requiring staff and equipment that we can�t use on new patients who come in.  And so the problem�s not patients with non-urgent medical conditions, the problem is we can�t move these critically ill patients up to the hospital and out of the E-R.�