Wait no more for ER wait time data

Reducing Emergency Room wait times is a top priority for the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. A key factor is to have accurate data, so targets can be measured and hospitals can make improvements. To achieve this, the Ministry has mandated a new initiative to reduce the turnaround time that hospitals report ER wait and treatment time data. Until now, the Ministry has asked for completed and coded health records data within 45 days after month-end. Now, the deadline has been reduced to just 10 business days.

“Health Record coding staff has been working feverishly over the past few months to attain the newly-mandated turnaround time, and we are pleased to announce we have succeeded. We have reduced the time for coding and submitting ER wait time/treatment data to the required 10 days,” says Jane Doan, Regional Manager of Coding and Data Quality.

This information is submitted to the Canadian Institute for Health Information and statistics are publicly posted, showing data on ER and Urgent Care departments across the NHS, Local Health Integration Networks and Ontario.

“Not only is this data needed to show wait and treatment times to the public, it assists in decision-making for future planning and resources for ER needs,” Jane explains. “Faster turnaround times also mean the Ministry will be able to post more recent stats.”

Point of Care Tracking

Accurate data is the foundation for evaluating ER workflow and identifying system bottlenecks. Best practice is to capture dates and times at the point of care – meaning physicians, nurses and other health professionals must document into the patient record at the following points of a patient’s experience:

• Triage
• Ambulance arrival and transfer of care
• Physician initial assessment
• Decision to admit, transfer or discharge
• Specialist consultant date/time called
• Clinical Decision Unit in and out
• Patient left

A Team Effort

The work and success of this initiative, called ERNI, is a collaborative effort from the following hospital departments: Health Records; Patient Resources; Decision Support; Information & Communication Technology; and Nursing.

“Health Record professionals want to ensure they accurately reflect the flow of ER patients, but can only do so if staff from these departments are continually involved,” Jane says.

Clinical staff can do your part…

• Understand your role in the process
• Ensure ER times are consistently documented on the ER record
• Capture data at the point of care
• Ensure accurate data is entered into Meditech – reflect dates and times orders written, NOT the time you are entering the data. Data quality at the source is the most effective way to collect valid and reliable data
• Ask your Health Record staff for more information «