Long Island Community Hospital transforms patient experience in the ED
Emergency departments account for nearly half of all medical care delivered in the U.S. With increasing demand and limited resources resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, assuring prompt, appropriate care is an obstacle for providers. In an effort to improve patient satisfaction in the ED, Long Island Community Hospital began an initiative to improve service and decrease patient wait time.
The hospital’s ED sees more than 65,626 patients a year, with 11,795 admissions. To streamline ED operations, Long Island Community Hospital partnered with Press Ganey to identify potential dissatisfaction and throughput issues. Next, they formed a collaborative task force, including the professional staff, along with the ED, nursing and patient experience teams, to institute direct bedding in the ED. This multidisciplinary initiative focused on decreasing door-to-care time and improving care quality by reducing the time it takes for a patient to see a physician.
As a result of the initiative, door-to-bed time decreased from 30 minutes to six minutes, while door-to-physician time decreased from 41 minutes to 20 minutes. Overall ED wait time decreased 50%.
For more information, contact Debra Grimm, DNP, MS, RN, vice president and chief nursing officer, at dgrimm@licommunityhospital.org or 631.654.7105.
