Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans created an ED protocol called QTrack, in which the sickest patients are seen immediately, while other patients go quickly into separate treatment areas, then await test results and discharge instructions in a post-treatment waiting room.
Stony Brook (N.Y.) University Medical Center now has procedures to send some patients upstairs into the hospital, so that inpatient personnel become more attuned to the needs of the ED.
Providence Hospital in Washington, D.C., uses community health workers to identify ED patients who could get their needs met in a community setting such as a primary care, HIV/AIDS or mental health clinic.
Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip, N.Y., sends ED patients with less serious medical problems to its walk-in surgery units after they close and ED volume picks up.
Read the Kaiser Health News report on EDs.
Read more coverage on ways to reduce ED crowding:
–Physician Triage Reduces ED Wait Times at Methodist Medical Center in Illinois
–Virginia Hospital Showing ED Wait Times on Electronic Billboards
–Grady Hospital Plans Health Centers Partly to Draw Patients Away From its ED
