Oh dear.

[Lunah]

This is ... I don't know what to call it. Pardon me while I think of something appropriate, but take a look:

Emergency Room Wait Times - Inova Health System

[PostOpPrincess, BSN, RN]

One of our competitor hospital system has this as an incentive for their patients to go. It's a marketing tool, but I am not so sure it works. Our ER still gets slammed so anybody and everybody comes to us no matter what.

[Redhead28]

Yep work for a system that has one of these bill boards with the ER time. Of course they only advertise their new hospital that has very little traffic. Try advertising the wait times of Pedi ER's in the winter. Had a family once that spent 2 days waiting for a bed to open up.

[dscrn]

Healthcare is like any other business..marketing is what it's all about.

[MaxAttack, BSN, RN]

Part of me thinks two words: job security.

Another part of me thinks that if you have the time to check this website, choose an ED based on the wait time, and then travel to these diverse areas (seriously, they're all pretty far apart), then you really don't need to be seen in the ED.

They have these down here in South Florida beside the highways..and my thoughts exactly. They even have it where you can text a number and an automated system will text you back the wait time, likely so if you're bleeding out on the street you'll already know which hospital you want to go to when the ambulance rolls in. Brilliant.

[nickos]

The hospital system I work for has wait times listed for our two hospitals in the area, but they are kind of buried on the website and hard to find. They aren't really "advertised" (no billboards with updated times that I'm aware of), but I can see why they are tracking them at all.

I think there is certainly an element of "customer satisfaction"..they want people to say "oh look how fast Anytown Hospital's ER moves!" and bring in more patients. However, our site has the caveat that wait times can change at any moment...and I think they are really posted just so people will STOP CALLING and asking how long a wait time is.

[southern rn]

Our hospital system uses them too..and I have found them to be fairly accurate. I have actually used this to tell friends who needed to be seen (but non-life threatening, obviously) the hospital with the shortest wait time so they could be treated.I think it is also a good tool for people to use to decide if they actually need to be seen or not...if someone is on the fence about going in vs. calling their pcp in the morning, a 2.5 hr. wait time is a good decision maker lol.

[tencat]

If you can carry a pager outside of a hospital ER, you are definitely NOT sick enough to warrant an ER visit....sheesh.

[Jolie, BSN]

Along with advertising wait times on line and on bill boards, how about a "ticker" that compares the cost of an unnecessary ER visit versus the cost of a PCP or urgent care visit?

[CareteamRN70]

Last time I was in an ER was about a month ago, my 8 yr old son had his left leg mauled by a small dog. From the time I spoke at the admitting desk to being called back four hours had passed. I just sat there keeping pressure on his bite marks which bled like crazy until we were seen. His case may have been given to a Doc or PA within 20 minutes but that doesn't mean the same thing as being seen by one.

[sissiesmama, ASN, RN]

Pretty soon they will be taking reservations for emergency tx!

VIP, Gold Card, Silver Card, Bronze Card.........

May I take a Number....

Triage Nurse: Now serving #7, VIP...

What Next.....

"Would u like an apple pie with that??!"

Anne, RNC

[sissiesmama, ASN, RN]

To those of you whose hospitals do this, do you find the quoted wait times to be fairly accurate?

NO WAY!! Not from what dh and I have seen and/or heard.

Anne, RNC

[Altra, BSN, RN]

for the last time:

if wait time is a factor in deciding when/where/if to go to the emergency department ...

you are not experiencing an emergency.

this is good news for you. stay home, and enjoy your day. thank you.