Practice Management
About 3% of patients leave emergency departments (EDs) without being seen, according to a federal data set that was summarized in Becker’s Hospital Review. State information analyzed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) demonstrates the variability in wait times in the ED before patients leave. Patients in North Dakota walk out after a median wait time of 108 minutes—the shortest time span. By comparison, patients in Washington, D.C., wait a median of …
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It’s a strange phenomenon, but there are data to back it up: The emergency room at St. Charles Bend in Bend, OR is getting more traffic—it’s just not necessarily treating more patients. Nearly 5% of the people who check in to the ED leave without being seen (LWBS) because the wait is simply too long. That’s nearly three times the national average. The Bulletin newspaper in Bend noted that LWBS was the most common diagnosis …
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) says patients reporting to emergency rooms in Maryland are likely to wait over twice as long as the national average—53 minutes vs 22 minutes. Greater Baltimore Medical Center (BMBC), whose ED clocked an average wait time of 60 minutes, suggested patients could get in and out much more efficiently if nonemergent patients sought care in a more appropriate environment, such as BMBC’s primary care offices. This echoes …
Read MoreIn each issue on this page, we report on research from or relevant to the emerging urgent care marketplace. And few things are more relevant to urgent care’s role in the greater healthcare marketplace than wait times in various settings. This may be especially true to the emergency department, as one of the more often heard take-home messages in urgent care promotion is shorter wait times versus a trip to the Ed. This begs the …
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