According to a Boston Globe article, wait times in emergency rooms have not increased as a result of a new Massachusetts policy that took effect earlier this year requiring hospitals to accept all ambulances rather than diverting them to other hospitals when their emergency rooms are overcrowded. The policy led to hospitals looking at underlying reasons for long wait times and implementing changes in response to what they found.
For example, MGH put in place a new triage system under which patients see a nurse within ½-hour of arrival and the nurse can start any needed tests. Brigham and Women’s opened up a “surge pod” where patients who are going to be admitted can be placed until a regular hospital bed opens up. According to Alice Bonner, the director of DPH’s Bureau of Quality and Safety, many hospitals are putting in place further changes throughout their institutions to reduce emergency room wait times.
Later this month, DPH will start posting information on its website about emergency room length-of-stay. The postings will not identify hospitals by name. As the article details, this is an example of a policy put in place to prevent poor quality care (in this case, diverting patients to other hospitals, which can further delay treatment and may also separate patients from the location of their medical records and their usual care providers) that then led to the implementation of quality improvement practices that benefit all patients. This is the hope with all regulations that seek to improve one area of health care-that the ripple effects of the changes put in place will ultimately improve care above and beyond the initial goal.
-Deborah W. Wachenheim
