A study of emergency unit waiting time

Administrators at Mercy Hospital in Springfield, Massachusetts, studied the effects of daily patient number and arrival rate on waiting time in the Emergency Unit. These two factors were found to have a smaller impact on waiting times than might be expected. Several issues relating to staffing and to patients' illnesses were addressed to reduce visit lengths (ie, inadequate number of admitting registrars, inefficient use of staff, insufficient locations for the rapid treatment of patients requiring suturing, and large numbers of ancillary services requested on a stat basis). Subsequent studies showed that changes instituted as a result of the initial study had reduced overall emergency waiting time by 12%, even though average daily census had increased by 17%.