Motzquist says wait times vary by hospital and factors
Narcisse asks whether wait times vary by hospital and which H&H hospitals have the longest and shortest waits. Motzquist says he does not have all hospital-level data but notes variation by time of day, capacity, admissions, and discharges, and cites Lincoln Hospital as seeing about 37 patients per hour at peak.
Do wait times vary by hospital?
If so, which hospital report the highest and the lowest wait times?
I don't have the wait times of all the hospitals in the city with us here today.
You know, I could say that in the city, H&H, I'm always running through there, at least.
I don't know if I have the H&H data, but I can get that for you.
I could say that it depends on several factors.
You know, time of day matters a big difference, right?
Sometimes people come in.
Depends on whether a mass casualty incident occurs, as the chief had mentioned earlier.
depends on the seasonality as well.
You know, as flu season comes through, people get sicker with different illnesses.
There's lots of different variables that contribute to it, and we try to staff to demand to meet those expectations.
There's a lot of variables, but what I'm getting to, trying to, is to see what are the top one and what's the plan to make it better.
Because right now we're in a crisis.
It is a real crisis for us.
Which H&H hospital currently experienced the longest emergency department wait times and what factors are driving those delays?
I don't have the number of the longest in front of me, but I can say a certain facility like Lincoln sees about 37 patients per hour arriving at any given moment at its peak.
And so when a patient's arriving literally more than one every two minutes, it's a lot of volume coming in for them to manage, and we have to increase staffing and increase our resources to meet those needs.