Moving admitted ER patients into inpatient beds faster could significantly increase hospit...( f inpatient beds include shift changes...),Health

While the study found chest pain patients' length of stay in the emergency department had no association with their health outcome, total hospital length of stay or health system cost or revenues, these standard accounting measures miss half the problem in that they ignore the missed opportunity for emergency medical staff to treat another patient, according to the study's authors.

To calculate potential lost revenue, researchers used the average payment collected for each emergency patient treated in an urban emergency department--about 30 cents to the dollar--as opposed to the average amount billed. They found hospitals are potentially losing in excess of $168,000 in potential revenue because admitted chest pain patients waiting for telemetry beds block emergency department beds that could be used to treat incoming patients.

"If similar extended lengths of stay exist in the care of all admitted emergency department patients, the hospital may be losing more than $1.74 million in potential revenue each year," said Dr. Hollander. "However, we believe this is an underestimation, because our study did not include lost revenue from patients who left without being seen, patients in ambulances diverted to other emergency departments, or patients who avoided the emergency department based on the wait time or its wait time reputation."

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Contact: Colleen Hughes
chughes@acep.org
202-728-0610
American College of Emergency Physicians
20-Dec-2004