ACEP members are tackling the boarding crisis from every angle. A multi-year effort by Connecticut ACEP to work with the Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit health care watchdog organization, could markedly increase the amount of hospital data available on boarding.
Connecticut ACEP advocacy has led to a proposed update to Leapfrog’s annual hospital survey that could include “fact-finding questions to assess boarding times for patients seen in the emergency department,” the organization announced.
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With about 80% of the nation’s hospitals participating in the annual Leapfrog survey, the results are widely read by policymakers and health leaders. The addition of boarding data could have a significant impact on hospital practices.
“If it’s a priority, it can be done,” said Christopher L. Moore, MD, a Connecticut ACEP member leading the efforts with Leapfrog. “We know that boarding is a solvable problem if it is given sufficient attention as a patient safety issue.”
Dr. Moore believes that nobody should have to settle for a status quo that compromises quality of care and that state level initiatives can lead to measurable change.
“There are untapped opportunities at the state level for emergency physicians to get involved,” Dr. Moore said. “These efforts have the potential to bring about public accountability and transparency and to look towards solutions.”
Connecticut ACEP members are prominent among those leading the way on boarding solutions.
Dr. Moore is also the co-chair of a state government workgroup that advocated for new reporting requirements on boarding by Connecticut hospitals. The workgroup will submit a final report to the state on emergency department boarding and crowding, including proposed solutions, by January 2025. State-level initiatives can be complementary to national initiatives such as the Emergency Care Capacity and Quality (ECCQ) measure which is being considered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Emergency physicians are increasingly finding that progress on seemingly intractable challenges is possible through collaboration with their state chapters and national committees.
ACEP’s comprehensive efforts to address the root causes of boarding include alerting the White House, sounding the alarm through hundreds of troubling stories and tying boarding-related attestations to hospital performance measures. In October, ACEP advocacy led to a stakeholder summit convened by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
ACEP is proud to support emergency physician-led initiatives that get everyone a step closer to ending the boarding crisis.
Related:
Boarding Patients in Emergency Departments Nearly Doubles Daily Cost of Care, Study Finds
