Ohio hospitals address emergency wait times

Faced with overcrowding of emergency departments, the problem of people leaving EDs before receiving care and dwindling patient satisfaction, Hospitals both in Ohio and nationally are trying new approaches to reducing emergency wait times (Source: “Hospitals reduce ER wait times with system changes,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 10, 2009).

Examples of system changes aimed at reducing wait times can be found at Parma Community General Hospital, with its Doc at the Door program and Southwest General Health Center, which rolled out its Rapid Assessment program in November. The two hospitals outside Cleveland have started programs that require most patients to register with only their name and date of birth before immediately being taken to see a doctor in a room in the front of the ED.

As Dr. Jesse DiRando, director of emergency medical physicians at Parma, puts it, "The faster you can see the doctor, the faster you can find out if someone has something significantly wrong with them. And when it's something minor, the faster you can send them home."