This guide, for hospital administrators and emergency department leaders, provides step-by-step instructions for planning and implementing patient flow improvement strategies to ease emergency department crowding.

The information and resources are organized into the following sections:

• The need to address emergency department crowding
• Forming a patient flow team
• Measuring emergency department performance
• Identifying strategies
• Preparing to launch
• Facilitating change and anticipating challenges
• Sharing results
• References
• Guide to online resources successfully used by hospitals to improve patient flow
• Implementation plan template
• Example implementation plan
• Additional readings