Tenbensel T, et al. - In order to alleviate crowding in public hospital emergency departments (EDs), the New Zealand government in 2009 introduced a hospital ED target – 95% of patients seen, treated or discharged within 6 h. Researchers here investigated whether the NZ ED time target actually reduced ED length-of-stay (LOS), and if so, how and when. As per findings, the ED target clearly stimulated improvements in patient flow. This analysis, however, questioned the value of ED targets as a long term approach. Increased use of short-stay units indicated that the target became less effective in ‘standing for’ improved timeliness of hospital care in response to increasing acute demand. As such, the overall challenges remained in managing demand for acute and urgent care in New Zealand hospitals.