Björn af Ugglas picture

Björn Af Ugglas

Affiliated to research

Research description

My research is focused on demand and capacity imbalances in emergency care and how this impacts patient outcomes. We recently published a study on how hospital bed occupancy impacts patients and the emergency departments:

Association Between Hospital Bed Occupancy and Outcomes in Emergency Care: A Cohort Study in Stockholm Region, Sweden, 2012 to 2016. Af Ugglas B, Djärv T, Ljungman PLS, Holzmann MJ Ann Emerg Med 2020 Jan;():

We did not find a significant association between higher bed occupancy and increased 30-day mortality, but clear evidence that a higher bed occupancy has a negative impact on the workload in the emergency department. As a next step we are investigating if demand capacity imbalances (crowding) in the emergency departments are associated with increased 30-day mortality, increased revisits for discharged patients and increased hospital length of stay for admitted patients.