KevinMD.com - Medical Weblog

ER waits, how long is too long?

3 1/2 hours, according to a study. After that, patient satisfaction scores plummet. I'm surprised the scores didn't drop sooner than that.

To help with patient satisfaction, hospitals are resorting to a time-tested marketing tactic. Underpromise and overdeliver:
Basically, the docs calculated the mean time it took to get through the ER for a given test or procedure — then added 20% when they told patients what to expect. In a standard patient satisfaction survey, all nine variables related to wait times improved after the ER adopted this policy (the improvement was statistically significant for five of the variables).
Some hospitals have signs up informing patients how long the wait is for certain tests. I don't know why this hadn't been thought of sooner.

 Subscribe  Twitter



SpringWidgets
RSS Reader
This widget is the staple of our platform. Read all your feeds right here with this one widget - Supported feeds are OPML, RSS, RDF, ATOM. Watch your favorite Podcast in the embedded Video Player on the Desktop or publish your own video playlist to your site for others to view!
Visit the Widget Gallery



Like this article? Receive regular updates delivered free to your inbox.

Your information will never be shared or sold under any circumstances.


 


  TwitterCounter for @kevinmd


Comments

  1. we post our wait times online, we feel it's that important:
    http://www.pamf.org/home.cfm
  2. You (and the WSJ authors) should probably make clear that the time interval they correlated with satisfaction was **total length of stay** and not the "wait." Most folks will interpret this stat as people in the "waiting room" for 3-1/2 hours. Yeah, I'd be dissatisfied, too.

    The more significant stat re: pt satisfaction is door-to-doctor time. Maybe there's a study in it for us, there!
Post a Comment







nursing uniforms
Nursing Scrubs
Nursing Scrubs

by Cherokee
Including beautiful Mock Wrap Scrubs at ScrubsGallery.com.






 


Site Meter