Know This Before Your Next Emergency

Crowded emergency rooms and long wait times are making it difficult for people to get the care they need. Not only do patients spend a long time waiting to see a doctor, but they also spend a shocking amount of time receiving treatment. On average, patients spend 30 minutes waiting to be seen and another 128 minutes getting treated. All of this has caused an increasing number of people to leave hospitals without getting much-needed medical care.

Emergency rooms are too overworked to treat patients in a timely manner, causing many to leave before receiving much-needed medical care. Not only does this trend negatively affect the health of those requiring treatment, but it also may lower the overall standard of care for the population. Here's what they're doing to improve the situation.

Long Waiting Times Common in U.S. Emergency Rooms

Although some states have longer wait times than others, every state currently has an issue with ER wait times. In states like California and New York, among others, wait times can average 350 minutes. Pennsylvania and Illinois wait times come in at about 250 minutes, while Ohio and West Virginia average 200 minutes. What’s more, wait times continue to increase in many areas across the country.

Why are ER wait times so high? Many emergency departments (EDs) already cannot handle the influx of patients on a daily basis due to staff shortages. In addition to staff shortages, more people are visiting ERs for both emergent conditions and non-emergent conditions, such as a cough or sore throat.

How Long Wait Times affect Healthcare

When emergency departments are overworked, the standard of patient care is adversely affected as everyone is working hard to move patients through the system. Overcrowded EDs may be less likely to adhere to guidelines or deliver timely diagnoses or treatments. Additionally, many patients don’t wait around to get the care they need and may leave against the advice of a doctor. In California, where emergency room visits have increased by as much as 34%, about 4% of all patients leave before they get care. In California, in 2017 alone, 322,000 patients left the ER without seeing a doctor. Another 352,000, or approximately 2.4% of all California ER patients, left against medical advice or after seeing a doctor but before receiving care. 

What’s Being Done to Address Long Wait Times

Emergency departments are considering implementing various tactics to reduce wait times, such as:

• Doctor-led triage
• Rapid assessment models
• Streamlining patient visits
• Incorporating primary care offices in EDs

The goal of each of these solutions is to reduce wait times in the ER and to provide faster service to those who need it most.

Emergency room staff shortages and increased demand have made it difficult for some patients to seek timely medical treatment in an emergency. Emergency rooms are trying to address the issue by providing thorough triage care and by increasing/training staff to handle the demand. But in the meantime, this crisis doesn't seem to be shifting any time soon. 

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