A study published in the Emergency Medicine Journal ( abstract here ) aims to provide a tool to accurately measure emergency department overcrowding. The studies authors recruited an international group of 40 experts with experience in ED overcrowding. Crowding measures submitted by the panel were subsequently evaluated and ranked. Eventually a set of eight quantified crowding measures was agreed on. The objective of this study was to prioritise a list of quantified crowding measures, with clearly defined terms and international applicability, that would assess the current state of a department, evaluate how the department is coping with the current demands and highlight areas of concern..... .... The principle contribution of this study, which progresses the current crowding literature, was the generation of quantifiable measures. These measures provide a more comprehensive view of the ED operations and highlight areas of concern. This knowledge could make a considerable contribution to decision making regarding ED management and provide a basis for learning across different departments. Future work needs to validate these results. Acceptance of these measures will progress this field of research to the point where we can focus on developing targeted methods of management and minimisation of crowding. The 8 measures of emergency department overcrowding: Input measures 1. Ability of ambulances to offload Ambulance offload time is the time between ambulance arrival and offload. An emergency department (ED) is crowded when ambulance offload time is greater than 15 min in more than 10% of cases. 2. Patients who leave without being seen