Vizient recently launched a calculator for hospital leaders to estimate financial losses from patients leaving the emergency department before receiving treatment.
The ED throughput opportunity calculator asks for inputs of annual ED volume, a left-before-treatment-completion rate and whether the hospital is one that primarily serves community-based emergency care or is a complex hospital, including an academic, tertiary, high-volume or specialized referral hospital.
For example, a complex hospital with 40,000 people arriving to its ED every year and a 9% walkout rate is estimated to lose between $800,400 and $1,334,000. A community hospital with those same inputs is estimated to lose between $1,067,200 and $1,600,800.
The calculator is not a precise forecast. “The resulting estimate of financial leakage and potential recovery provides a starting point for a broader discussion about ED performance and improvement priorities,” according to Vizient’s website.
On Oct. 20, the American Hospital Association voiced support for the Addressing Boarding and Crowding in the Emergency Department Act, which aims to find best data collection practices for hospital capacity and ED boarding.
An upcoming CMS reporting measure will assess ED wait times, patients leaving without evaluation, boarding and total length of stay, according to an Oct. 20 Vizient article. The Emergency Care Access and Timeliness measure, finalized in the 2026 outpatient payment rule, sets a four-hour threshold for the time from the decision to admit to ED departure. Reporting is voluntary in 2027 and becomes mandatory in 2028, tied to 2030 payment.
Read more here.
