Background

Hospital crowding is a major challenge facing US health care systems, but few studies have evaluated the association between inpatient occupancy and patient mortality. The objective of this study was to determine how increasing hospital occupancy is associated with the likelihood of inpatient and 30-day out-of-hospital mortality using a novel measure of inpatient occupancy.

Author(s): Mahshid Abir, Jason Goldstick, Rosalie Malsberger, Sebastian Bauhoff, Claude Setodji, and Neil Wenger