For Immediate Release: January 21, 2026
Contact: Tricia Priebe, [email protected] or (203) 464-3793
The Connecticut College of Emergency Physicians (CCEP) Launches Public Facing Dashboard on Emergency Department Boarding Data
(Hartford, CT)-Have you or a loved one visited a Connecticut emergency department (ED) recently? If so, you may have experienced firsthand the challenges that our emergency physicians and nurses face providing timely care. Increased demands on hospital resources result in medical care being delivered in hallways, and delays for inpatient beds even after being admitted. Beyond inconvenience, these conditions can have serious effects on quality of care and patient safety.
To bring visibility to this growing crisis and support the push for solutions, the Connecticut College of Emergency Physicians (CCEP) today announces the launch of a “Public Facing Dashboard” that highlights the ongoing issue of emergency department boarding when hospital patients remain in EDs for extended periods after being admitted due to an increased demand for inpatient beds. Contributing to this demand are issue such as availability of behavioral health services in the community, lack of availability of rehab and nursing home beds, and delays in insurance companies authorizing such care. The dashboard is supported by a grant from the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP).
Connecticut is currently facing one of the worst flu seasons since the pandemic. Yet even in typical years, many EDs have been strained by the outsized demand for inpatient beds, and by patients waiting for placement. While this is a national issue, CCEP is committed to highlighting the situation and advancing solutions here in Connecticut.
“Overcrowded emergency departments negatively impact patient health and challenge physicians’ capacity to assist the public. Having this information in front of us lays out how stark our state’s needs are. I’m grateful to the CCEP for developing this dashboard for easy access to information and am encouraged that it can help us better find solutions for this pervasive problem.”
-Dr. Saud Anwar MD, State Senator
CCEP has been engaged in a multi-year effort to address ED boarding at the state level. As a result of this advocacy, in 2023 the Connecticut legislature passed PA 24-4, the first law in the country requiring hospitals to report boarding metrics annually through 2029. Data for 2024 is now available through this new dashboard, which will be updated annually to show trends across hospitals statewide.
The findings are troubling. Of the roughly 14% of patients presenting to an ED in 2024 who required an inpatient level of care, nearly 40% remained in the ED for more than four hours after admission. This threshold is widely agreed to be unacceptable and negatively impacts patient care. Boarding leads to poorer outcomes for patients, increased crowding and significant staff burnout. However, this is a complex but solvable problem through CCEP working closely with the state legislature, agencies, and healthcare partners, including participation on a statewide workgroup focused on hospital discharge challenges.
In addition to providing data, the dashboard allows patients and families to share experiences and ask questions.
“The state data from 2024 emphasized by the CT College of Emergency Physicians highlights the ongoing, serious problem of people remaining for long periods of time in the ER after being admitted to a hospital. As a doctor, I know well that this problem is not getting better. It can have real, bad impacts on patient care outcomes. This is not the fault of Emergency Department physicians or staff. It is a wider health care system problem. Thank you to the CCEP for continuing to work toward a solution. As a member of the Public Health Committee, I will continue to work collaboratively to get responsible, realistic reforms in place. We cannot accept the status quo or watching this patient care crisis get worse.”
-Dr. Jeff Gordon MD, State Senator
Nearly half of all CT residents will seek care in an emergency department this year. In 2024 alone, there were over 1.6 million ED visits statewide. This is an issue that affects nearly every family in our state. We encourage anyone needing prompt medical care to not delay coming to the Emergency Department. We also ask our legislators to continue their work to remove barriers to patient throughput and ensure access to prompt and efficient care.