MA Hospitals’ Emergency Room Waiting Times Among Worst in US

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Friday, October 24, 2014

Nicholas Handy, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

It takes about 40 minutes for patients attending Massachusetts emergency rooms to see a doctor, making the Commonwealth the fourth worst in the nation for wait times, according to federal data.

Out of all the states in the nation, only Delaware and Rhode Island fare worse, where the average wait times are 43 minutes and 38 minutes respectively. Washington DC ranks the worst in the United States, having an average wait time of 48 minutes. Massachusetts' average wait time is 37 minutes, according to a national ranking produced by ProPublica.

Within the state, average wait times vary considerably. The longest wait is at Lawrence General Hospital, where patients can expect to wait a whopping 86 minutes on average. The shortest wait is at Harrington Memorial Hospital in Southbridge, where patients only have to wait four minutes on average.

And although some of the wait times at emergency rooms seem lengthy, the initial wait is just the first step in what could become a lengthy stay at the emergency room.

At Lawrence General Hospital, visitors in the emergency room who end up being admitted face even lengthier times at the hospital as they on average spend five hours and 38 minutes before being admitted to the hospital and an additional two hours and 58 minutes until they are taken to their room. If not admitted, patients at Lawrence General spend two hours and 15 minutes at the hospital before they are sent home and three percent leave without being seen.

“I’m not surprised that the numbers are the way they are, but once again, it goes to show you that Massachusetts is not the medical mecca that we say it is,” said David Schildmeier, Director of Public Communications with Massachusetts Nurses Association. “Every minute that a patient in the ER isn’t seen by a doctor, their life  is in jeopardy.”

Ebola Preparedness

Ebola preparedness has been a hot debate topic in Massachusetts as of late, as hospitals throughout the state are trying to prepare for a potential Ebola case in the event that someone with Ebola-like symptoms enters the ER.

Questions of whether the emergency rooms throughout the nation are preparded to handle an Ebola crisis have hit an all time high after a Texas hospital initially turned away a man who later was diagnosed with the Ebola virus. A timeline of his first visit released by federal authorities shows that it took an hour before he was evaluated by a triage nurse on his first visit. She noted his symptoms but not his travel history.

Because it was nearly an hour before his first interaction with a doctor – the man spent a total of five hours in the ER before he was discharged – many are questioning whether hospitals are taking the proper protocol to manage potential Ebola cases, something state officials say they are working on.

“We are working together to ensure we are prepared here in Massachusetts to respond quickly and effectively in the event a case of Ebola is suspected or confirmed,” said Cheryl Bartlett, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. “To date, in Massachusetts, we are fortunate there have been no cases of Ebola Virus Disease, and the risk remains very low. I have every confidence that the Department is prepared to carry out its key surveillance and lab functions, and that Massachusetts hospitals can effectively care for an Ebola patient if necessary.”

Changing ER Protocol

While many hospitals throughout Massachusetts are struggling to keep their ER wait times down, Massachusetts General Hospital has become a shining example of how to do it right.

Although MGH is the largest hospital in New England with 950 beds, the average wait time for a patient is ten minutes. According to Robert F. Seger, the Executive Director of Emergency Services and Emergency Preparedness at MGH, the hospital has taken a lot of steps to make a hospital where patients are seen and examined as soon as possible.

Greeter nurses are positioned in the ER so that when patients come in, they can immediately be examined by a medical professional, rather than sitting in a room filling out paperwork. Because of this, the hospital can quickly identify who needs immediate care and who has an illness or injury that can wait.

“This process allows for us to not only see the patients sooner from a medical perspective, but also allows for us to determine if they are sick and can wait to be seen a little bit or if they are really sick and need to be seen right away,” said Seger. “We have also tried to work with our staff to double or triple our staff during the points in the day where we are the most busy in the ER to prevent understaffing.”

Fighting Understaffing

According to Schildmeier, one of the largest contributing factors for longer wait times in Massachusetts hospitals is the understaffing of hospitals, something that he and the rest of the Massachusetts Nurses Association has been trying to fight against for sometime now.

Because many hospitals in Massachusetts have cut staff, support staff, and even closed departments and entire floors of their hospitals, there are less staff members to take care of an ever-evolving patient base.

While there has been a law passed in Massachusetts that sets safe limits for ICU nurses, there is no such law for the ER, something that the MNA hopes to work on next year.

“The emergency department functions as the entry point of the entire hospital,” said Schildmeier. “Our hospitals do not have the proper staffing to care for patients, whether it be nurses and other medical professions or even support staff like cleaning people so that the rooms can be cleaned to get new patients into rooms. We need to fix our staffing problem so that patients can be properly cared for.”

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Related Slideshow: Central MA Emergency Rooms: How Long You Have to Wait

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