In each issue on this page, we report on research from or relevant to the emerging urgent care marketplace. This month, we provide new data relevant to many urgent care providers’ marketing messages – namely, hospital performance on wait times during visits to the emergency room.
These data reflect the percentage of visits in which wait times met pre-defined targets.
Source: Horwitz LI, Green J, Bradley EH. U.S. emergency department performance on wait time and length of visit. Annals Emerg Med. 2010; 55(2): 133-141.
It may be especially noteworthy that patients visiting for “urgent” matters – those with a target wait time of 16 to 60 minutes – were seen within the target time 80% of the time, with performance improving for longer target times at lower acuity levels.
How would your urgent care center’s performance stack up against the ED’s for similar patient visits?
If you are aware of new data that you’ve found useful in your practice, let us know via e-mail to [email protected]. We’ll share your discovery with your colleagues in an upcoming issue of JUCM.