Oregon Emergency Room Wait Times 17th Worst in the Nation

Friday, October 24, 2014
Nicholas Handy, GoLocalPDX Contributor

It takes about 30 minutes for patients at Oregon emergency rooms to see a doctor, making the state the 17th worst in the nation for wait times, according to federal data.

Although Oregon ranks pretty high compared to some states in the nation, Oregon’s wait times are aligned with the national average, with both wait times being 28 minutes. On the high end, patients in Washington DC wait an average of 48 minutes and on the low end patients wait 16 minutes in Wyoming, according to a national ranking produced by ProPublica.

Within Oregon, average wait times vary considerably. The longest wait is at Providence St Vincent Medical Center in Portland, where patients can expect to wait a whopping 118 minutes on average. The shortest wait is at Harney District Hospital in Burns, where patients only have to wait five minutes on average.

And although some of the wait times at emergency rooms already seem lengthy, the initial wait is just the first step in what could become a lengthy stay at the emergency room.

At Providence St Vincent Medical Center, visitors in the emergency room who end up being admitted face even lengthier times at the hospital as on average they spend four hours and 30 minutes before being admitted to the hospital and an additional hour and 24 minutes until they are taken to their room. If not admitted, patients at Providence St Vincent spend three hours and six minutes at the hospital before they are sent home and two percent leave without being seen.

“Different hospitals are going to face different problems in regards to how long their emergency room wait times are,” said Brian Terrett, Media Director for Legacy Health, which operates four hospitals in Oregon. “A larger hospital like Legacy Emanuel is a level one trauma center and serves a lot more patients because it is a bigger hospital in an urban environment. One of our smaller hospitals may have smaller wait times because there aren’t as many patients coming in and the hospital doesn’t have the same outreach as a larger one.”

Ebola Preparedness

Ebola preparedness in hospitals has been a hot debate topic throughout the nation as of late, as hospitals and state health officials are trying to prepare for a potential Ebola case in the event that someone with Ebola-like symptoms enters the ER.

Questions of whether the emergency rooms throughout the nation are prepared for a patient presenting with Ebola have hit an all time high after a Texas hospital initially turned away a man who later was diagnosed with the Ebola virus. A timeline of his first visit released by federal authorities shows that it took an hour before he was evaluated by a triage nurse on his first visit. She noted his symptoms but not his travel history.

Because it was nearly an hour before his first interaction with a doctor – the man spent a total of five hours in the ER before he was discharged – many are questioning whether hospitals are taking the proper protocol to manage potential Ebola cases, something state officials say they are working on.

“We are currently educating front-line health care providers, such as those in hospital emergency departments, to be aware that when they are evaluating someone who is displaying symptoms of illness consistent with Ebola, they need to ask the individual about travel history, as well as history of exposure to a person with Ebola,” said Jonathan Modie, Communications Officer with the Oregon Public Health Division. “If the patient has recently been in Liberia, Guinea or Sierra Leone, hospitals are advised to isolate that person in a room and close the door, then determine a safe way to verify his or her travel history and other information, and immediately contact the local health department, which will involve us at the state Public Health Division.”

Different Hospitals, Different Factors

When trying to determine why hospital wait times vary so much throughout the hospitals in Oregon, finding an answer is next to impossible.

Even within each hospital, circumstances are subject to change. Wait times can vary from day to day or even hour-by-hour based on the amount of staff in place, the number of beds available and the amount of patients coming in.

With that being said, hospitals that have consistently higher wait times are looking for solutions, trying to get emergency room patients the care they so desperately need. Hospital systems like Providence Health & Services – where four of their eight hospitals boast the top four average wait times in the state – are looking for new programs and implementation strategies to cut down on wait times and to divert patients who don’t really need to come to the ED.

“Providence has put a program in place called ED Guides to help patients understand how to best use the Emergency Department,” said Bonnie Forsch, Regional Director of Emergency Services for Providence Health & Services. “We want to make sure patients are receiving the right care at the right place at the right time.  If they patient presents in the ED and has a non-urgent problem, following the medical screening exam the ED guide meets with them and talks them through options for the future and makes an appointment for patients to follow up with a primary care provider.”

Need More Mental Health Facilities

A large problem throughout Oregon that is leading to longer wait times at many hospitals is the lack of resources the state has to properly take care of mental health patients. Because these patients do not have the proper facilities to go to, they oftentimes wind up at emergency departments throughout the state.

Because these mental health patients are showing up but not needing emergency care to the degree that others presenting might, they have been taking up much needed beds and staying in them for longer than the typical emergency patient.

“While one of the biggest factors is making sure that there is adequate care and medical professionals at the hospital to care for patients, there is also a problem in the state with not having enough resources to handle mental health patients,” said Susan King, Executive Director of the Oregon Nurses Association. “The mental health crisis is a huge contributing factor to long wait times in hospitals in Oregon, we don’t have enough mental health beds which diverts them to the emergency department.”