Through shared governance and collaborative leadership, the Valley Hospital Bolger Emergency Department transformed patient flow and the waiting experience by launching

The Valley Hospital Bolger Emergency Department

an interdisciplinary Wait Time Task Force. A strong partnership of the operational teams led to solutions including a real-time dashboard for wait times, purposeful patient rounding, enhanced waiting room amenities and a redesigned physician assignment model. These initiatives improved transparency, strengthened communication and increased accountability to reduce left without being seen rate from 2.37 percent to 0.80 percent despite rising patient volumes. This work exemplifies how empowered teams drive innovation, improve patient outcomes and create a more patient-centered emergency department.

In partnership with emergency department physician leadership, an interdisciplinary team implemented evidence-based strategies to improve timely access to care in the 65-bed ED. Collaborative initiatives included redesigned physician assignments, a physician-in-triage model to accelerate evaluations and initiate diagnostics, and a Virtual Physician-in-the ER telehealth program to expand provider capacity during peak volumes. These improvements reduced door-to-provider time by 20 minutes, shortened the length of stay by 75 minutes for discharged patients and 40 minutes for admitted patients and increased patient satisfaction by 10 percentile points.