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Article: ED performance improvement process changes hospitals can make now: hospitals can improve efficiencies, reduce costs, and enhance revenue by making a few process changes to improve ED performance.
- Article from:
- Healthcare Financial Management
- Article date:
- December 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Healthcare Financial Management Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Your emergency department (ED) is filled to capacity. Again. Ambulances are being rerouted to other hospitals. Several acute patients are waiting for inpatient beds to become available. A number of patients, however, have nonurgent medical conditions and are waiting for diagnostic test results so they can be treated and released. You know that moving these patients out faster would free up space for other patients. And if only inpatient beds were available, acute patients could be admitted faster. The waiting game is affecting not only hospital ED performance, but also the hospital's inpatient business. Indeed, the ED is perhaps the most significant component of a ...