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Got an Emergency? Be Ready to Wait.

January 16th, 2008 | by Timothy Kintzel, M.D. |

A recent study published in the journal Health Affairs reported what anyone who has recently gone to an emergency room already knows; waiting times to be seen are increasing. The average wait time has increased by 36 percent or 30 minutes per patient. Fully one quarter of patients wait 50 minutes or longer. This increase applies to patients with acute emergencies - such as heart attacks (where wait times have gone on average from 8 minutes to 20 minutes from 1997 to 2004) as well as for less urgent conditions. Blacks, Hispanics, and woman also wait longer. The main reason for the delays the authors say is the fact that hundreds of Emergency Departments across the country have closed - at the same time that the elderly population has increased. This in addition to a lack of inpatient bed space has created a log jam in the ER. The solution to the problem will not be simple - since so many factors come together to cause it. Interestingly, patients with insurance wait just a long as patients without it. The authors liken the ER to a NASCAR pit-crew - “We’re designed to immediately assess, stabilize and move patients [to treatment],” said Kellermann. Without the open space, he said, the ER health-care team wastes valuable time moving patients and equipment around to try to get to the next patient.”

Health Affairs Web Exclusive, January 15, 2008