Reducing Time to Care in the Emergency Department
Published on in CHOP News
Reduce Time to Needed Care
Reduce Suffering
Why is this important?
Evidence demonstrates that having a physician in triage is an effective strategy to improve Emergency Department (ED) patient flow. Physicians are key in making initial patient assessments: They can initiate workup and treatment for higher-acuity patients, and can help accelerate the discharge of low-acuity patients. Patients are seen by a provider sooner, spend less time in the ED, and are less likely to leave the Hospital without treatment.
What we did
A new, flexible triage treatment area was constructed. A multidisciplinary team of physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, pharmacists, environmental services, patient care associates, ED technicians, and security officers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) worked together to develop a flexible process for “Fast Care – Start Care” to best meet the needs of our patients with the goal of decreasing time to care, ED length of stay, and the number of patients who leave without treatment.
Results
With the initiation of the new triage team, the ED has significantly decreased the number of patients who leave without receiving treatment.
Updated October, 2018