Significant Reduction of Emergency Department Wait Time Correlates to Improvements in Patient Satisfaction and Yelp Ratings
The Emergency Department is an integral component of a community hospital.
ED offers immediate and round-the clock health care access to the community.
More than half of urban hospital EDs reported that they are at or above capacity in
a 2010 survey. Previous studies have established linkage between ED crowding and compromised
quality of care, patient safety, patient experience, and increased mortality.
An efficient patient throughput strategy is crucial to reduce crowding.
Providers and nurses are encouraged to take patients’ preferences into care decisions
to achieve better medication adherence, disease management, and outcomes.
Hospitals are looking for strategies beyond standardized surveys to engage their patients
and improve their care. For example, Yelp was founded in 2004 and has since become one of the
most popular online rating sites which allow customers to post their reviews and submit
star ratings on local businesses.
While Yelp reviews are subjective, these reviews often reveal additional insights,
such as patient perspectives and treatment of family members that are not captured by the current
survey. Social media is a plausible channel for hospitals to engage their communities
and improve operations based on patient feedback.
Similar to other U.S. hospitals, [facility], a medium-sized community hospital,
is facing the crisis of ED crowding. The expanded coverage of the Affordable Care Act
placed tremendous stress on a 9-bed ED and created an urgency to improve
throughput.
By analyzing throughput and patient experience data, a multidisciplinary team
identified significant bottlenecks in the process and determined ED
boarded patients reduced ED capacity.
Emerg Med Open J. 2018; 4(1): 10-16. doi: 10.17140/EMOJ-4-148