Why Hospitals Should Stop Advertising ER Wait Times

Reports of inaccurate wait times combined with greater access to consumer reviews of patient experiences are making it harder to justify the use of wait times in hospital marketing campaigns.

In competitive markets, hospitals strive to entice patients to choose their emergency departments to edge out the competition. EDs are seen as the gateway to the hospital and to a lifetime of loyalty. A patient may come for stitches in the ED today, a baby delivery next year, and so on.

For years hospitals and health systems have been advertising emergency department wait times via digital billboards, smartphone apps, and online widgets.

But, despite its popularity with marketers, the practice of advertising wait times remains controversial. Since those who have time to check wait times probably aren't experiencing a true medical emergency the thinking goes, ideally, those patients should be directed to a more appropriate care access point.

Reports of inaccurate wait times combined with greater public access to such information are making it harder to justify the use of wait times in marketing campaigns.

False Expectations
Last week, an Orlando news station aired an exposé revealing that local hospitals' advertised wait times are drastically inaccurate.

And, while it may sound like the station launched an in-depth investigation that involved sending patient moles with fake ailments to the ER, the discrepancies didn't take much work to suss out. Reporters simply checked hospitals' advertised wait times online and then called and asked ER staff.

Across the board, online wait times and staff-reported wait times varied widely, in one case a wait posted online as 60-plus minutes was estimated at four hours by ED staff, when reporters inquired.

"The blanket assumption that there is a significant difference in emergency room wait times posted on our website and actual wait times is inaccurate," a Florida Hospital spokesperson said in response to the report. "The number of emergency room patients and the severity of their conditions can vary widely from minute to minute. As required and expected, patients suffering from life- or limb-threatening conditions are given priority."

The hours-long discrepancies combined with public responses like that won't bolster much confidence with healthcare consumers. Not only does posting overly optimistic wait times set false expectations for patients, but it may slow the ED down even more by attracting a large amount of people expecting speedy care. This practice seems like a lose/lose proposition for hospitals.

Yelp's Game Changer
Hospitals that aren't the focus of a media investigation won't get off scott-free if their wait times are inaccurate. Now, those who are skeptical of advertised ED wait times don't have to watch a news report or even call the hospital—they can just log on to Yelp.

The consumer reviews website began partnering with the independent investigative newsroom, ProPublica in August to make it easier for patients to find government hospital data, including estimated ER wait times. While the organization's emergency wait watcher tool isn't new, integrating it into Yelp puts the information in front of significantly more people—83 million unique visitors per month, to be exact.

"Many people think of the Yelp platform for finding great restaurants and hotels, and it certainly is," Luther Lowe, Yelp's vice president for policy, said in a news report. "We're taking data that otherwise might live in some government PDF that's hard to find and we're putting it in a context where it makes sense for people who may be in the middle of making critical decisions."

As more people begin to shop around for healthcare, sites like Yelp, which aggregates data and consumer reviews, will be the first stop for savvy patients who are trying to choose which ER to visit. In that case, hospital website wait time advertising will become obsolete.

Ultimately, the strategy of advertising ED wait times in an attempt to drive patient volume has lost the promise and glimmer it once had. Posting estimated online wait times sets a hospital up to fail patients' expectations before they even step foot on campus, and they cater to patients who may not be experiencing a true emergency.

Instead of marketing short wait times, hospitals can promote their emergency care services by highlighting their focus on patient experience and quality of care. Messages like that stick in patients' minds, and should they ever need emergency care, they'll remember the organization that communicated its brand promise, not the one with the slickest wait time app.