Progress West Tweets ER Wait Times

Progress West HealthCare Center is the first local hospital using the social media site Twitter to give regular updates about wait times in its Emergency Room.
 
Throughout the day, updated wait times are posted along with helpful health care information such as "What to do in an emergency" and "Possible heart attack symptoms."

In addition to the Twitter updates, Progress West has launched an ER micro site to familiarize the public with the services and staff in the Progress West Emergency Room.

"It's a great way to inform the public of what to expect before they even get here," says Paula Szwargulski, manager, emergency services at Progress West. "It also gives them a preview of how seriously we take communicating with our patients. People come to the ER knowing there may be a wait, but what they really want to know is how long that wait might be and that they haven't been forgotten."

Emergency Room "wait times" refer to the period of time when the patient is first entered into the system to the time he or she is brought back to a private room. A Guest Relations representative typically enters the patient's name and the chief complaint into the system and immediately notifies the triage nurse that a patient has arrived. The triage nurse escorts the patient to the treatment area and assesses the urgency of the situation. The nurse may initiate treatment protocols per physician direction to expedite care.

"We have physician coverage for both our adult and pediatric patients. Our partnership with St. Louis Children's Hospital enables us to have pediatric specialists here 24/7. Since children represent about 35 percent of all our ER visits, having both adult and pediatric emergency physicians help us to see all patients in a timely manner," says Szwargulski.