Promoting emergency department services was one of the hot trends of 2010. And that's likely to continue in 2011 as hospitals and their partners continue to create new services that improve access to care and patient satisfaction.
One of the most innovative new services was developed by InQuickER, a Tennessee-based company that promotes emergency room reservations. JFK Memorial Hospital in Indio, California adopted the system last fall and is now scheduling nearly one appointment a day.
"We scheduled 13 appointments in the October-November period and had 19 in December," said Linda Evans, director of physician and community development for JFK Memorial. "So we saw the number of reservations almost double in December."
A key to driving more traffic was lowering the "convenience fee" for making a reservation, which encourages patients to follow through on their appointment and generates ancillary revenue. Evans said JFK lowered its appointment fee from $24.95 to $9.95 after an analysis of Web-site traffic showed many people lost interest in making appointments after seeing the original fee. The hospital also launched a major ad campaign last month to publicize ER appointments.
"We're advertising the service with TV commercials and we have a billboard that just went up on the highway," said Evans. "And we're even using digital ads at the Palm Springs airport." She said the service isn't seen as a big revenue generator but will help raise JFK Memorial's reputation for innovation. "We think it improves patient satisfaction and should help shorten our ER wait times."
More than 20 hospitals in the U.S., including five in California, are now using the reservation system, said Chris Song, director of public relations and brand strategy for InQuickER.
Text messaging is another service hospitals are using to promote shorter waits at emergency departments. To use the service, patients just need to text ER to 23000 on their cell phone and type in their area code to receive the average wait times at hospitals in the local area (assuming they are registered for the service). The system works by linking computers in emergency departments with the texting ability of cell phones.
In late 2010, Good Samaritan Hospital and Regional Medical Center of San Jose became the first hospitals in Northern California to adopt the system, which updates the average wait time at both hospitals every 30 minutes.
"Serious injuries, heart attacks, stroke symptoms – those patients should always call 9-1-1 immediately,' said Richard Newell, MD, Good Samaritan's ER medical director. "But for weekend warrior conditions and many of life's lesser injuries and illnesses, having this information can mean making the choice to drive a little farther to be seen a little, or a lot, faster."
Emergency department wait times became a hot button issue last year after a report from research firm Press-Ganey showed the average ER wait time at U.S. hospitals was 4 hours and 7 minutes. And with that average wait time expected to increase in 2011, it makes sense for hospitals to pursue new ways to make shorter waits at ERs an extra perk for patients.