Both Porter Regional Hospital and Portage Hospital have recently launched a 30-Minute ER Service Pledge. This new service is a part of an ongoing quality improvement process to monitor how efficiently Porter triages patients and gets them to a clinical professional, defined as a physician, physician assistant or nurse practitioner, for initial evaluation and treatment.
This new program is only available in northwest Indiana at Porter Regional Hospital and Portage Hospital.
Here’s how it works:
When a patient enters the ER the arrival time is noted. The 30-Minute ER Service Pledge begins the minute a patient checks in at the ER desk. The pledge is that a clinical professional will work diligently to initially see each patient within 30 minutes or less of their arrival to begin the evaluation and treatment. When the patient is seen by a clinical professional, again defined as a physician, physician assistant or nurse practitioner, the time is logged on the patient’s chart to track performance in keeping the pledge of low ER wait times. While the goal of the ER pledge is to work diligently to initially see every patient within 30 minutes, the most critical health emergencies will always receive top priority.
The hospital records and monitors many ER indicators as part of its ongoing quality improvement process. “One of the items we track is patient wait times in the ER to determine how efficiently we triage patients and get them to a clinical professional for initial evaluation and treatment,” said Porter Chief Nursing Officer Taffy Arias. “I’m pleased to report that the vast majority of patients at both Porter’s ER were already being seen within 30 minutes of their arrival time.”
“While we are committed to prompt and appropriate care for our ER patients, the 30-Minute ER pledge should not be misinterpreted as an effort to rush patients though the ER,” Arias adds. “Our process improvements focus on getting ER patients into a treatment room as quickly as possible, enabling our clinical professionals to see a patient and begin diagnosis and treatment in a timely manner.”
The community can view Porter Regional Hospital and Portage Hospital’s average ER wait time – based on a two-hour rolling average, updated every 15 minutes – on the hospital’s website at www.porterhealth.com.
Porter Health Care System has two hospital campuses and seven outpatient facilities serving Porter, Lake, LaPorte, Starke, Newton and Jasper counties. With more than 350 physicians representing 50 medical specialties on the medical staff, Porter Health Care System is a leader in technology and overall patient care.