Some of the changes to their emergency department were the following:
- They changed the greeter at the front door to a nurse instead of a security guard
- Triage nurse interviews a patient, performs an assessment, and identifies patient level of urgency - after this is complete their vital signs and a complete assessment are taken.
- They changed their department from staff-centered to patient-centered
Overall, the following improvements occurred at King County Hospital Center:
- Wait time had an improvement of 50% (from 31 minutes to only 15 minutes)
- Pediatric wait time dropped to 20 minutes from 52 minutes
- The article also shows success stories from 3 other hospitals in the New York area.
To view the full article, please click the following link: Reduced Wait Times, More Efficient Emergency Rooms
For additional resources, please click the following link: Medical Reimbursement Billing and Coding Resources