The Toughest Questions in Health Care: Why Can Emergency Department Wait Times Be So Long?

For the Love of Health

Lengthy emergency department wait times are nothing new. This has been a national issue since the 1980s. It’s a challenge for every health system – a challenge with no easy solutions.

ChristianaCare is home to America’s 15th busiest ED, and in the third installment of our year-long series, “The Toughest Questions in Health Care,” Dr. Kert Anzilotti, ChristianaCare Chief Medical Officer, and Ric Cuming, ChristianaCare Chief Operating Officer, deliver insightful answers to the question, “Why can ED wait times be so long?”
Together, we walk the complex maze of healthcare efficiency, examining the intricacies behind long queues. Learn how factors like hospital-wide patient volume, case severity prioritization and the ripple effects of post-acute care facility shortages contribute to a significant bottleneck. And explore a data-driven approach to improving patient flow and emergency department functionality.
Finally, we provide guidance on choosing the most suitable venue of care for a variety of medical needs, a major way the public can be part of helping hospitals reduce wait times in the ED.
Ric. Cuming is chief operating officer of ChristianaCare. In this role, Ric oversees the delivery of efficient and fiscally responsible system operations. He also works with other leaders to ensure high-quality and safe patient care. Ric joined ChristianaCare in 2016 as the system’s first chief nurse executive.
Dr. Kert Anzilotti is chief medical officer for ChristianaCare. His work focuses on the optimization of care delivery across the health care system through strategic visioning, network development, clinical technology implementation and leveraging medical informatics.
Links

• Should I Go To the Emergency Room, Urgent Care or Primary Care?
• Emergency Care at ChristianaCare
• ER visits are getting longer amid hospital staffing shortages
• The Complexities Of Emergency Medicine And Prolonged ER Wait Times

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1. The Toughest Questions in Health Care: Why Can Emergency Department Wait Times Be So Long? (00:00:00)

2. The Challenge of Wait Times at Emergency Departments (00:01:04)

3. What Impacts Individual Wait Times (00:02:34)

4. Working to Reduce Wait Times (00:09:03)

5. What the Public Can Do to Help the ED (00:14:46)