LAUSR

The danger of DTOCs is that their impact extends both ways through the system, potentially harming patients being treated and those waiting for treatment. The impacts of DTOCs include longer waits for admission, delayed elective surgeries, and hospital overcrowding, affecting morbidity and mortality. Similarly, patients admitted to hospital who are staying longer than medically necessary face an increased risk of hospitalacquired complications.4 Despite these impacts leading to worse outcomes for patients, DTOCs also negatively affect the system by increasing health care costs and the time spent in hospital for some patients and delaying access to treatment for other patients.