Get Your Local Hospital ER Wait Times Before getting There!

One of the newest breakthroughs in technology has hit the many hospitals in the South Florida area. A new texting platform dubbed ER texting was developed to make it easier for those experiencing a moderate to mild emergency to reach a local hospital. The emergency texting platform allows you to text your zipcode to 4ER411 and get participating local hospital ER wait times directly to your phone.  Both hospitals and patients can benefit from this platform.

Hospitals will be able to:

-Drive traffic to their buildings

-Promote their practice

Patients can benefit by getting:

-Emergency medical assistance

-Immediate response of ER wait times, which will get you to the hospital faster

News has already surfaced in the south Florida area on how this platform has affected local hospitals.

ERtexting in Action: South Florida

Note: This article is about one of the wide-ranging capabilities of the ERtexting service. The billboards described within this article are prominently positioned about the South Florida (Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and Palm Beach) metro area. Note how ERtexting has paid off for the hospitals featured within this article.

A link to the actual news footage of this story follows.

Aventura, FL- An unexpected industry is taking over roadside billboards.
“Emergency room waiting times just 4 minutes at Aventura Hospital,” reads a billboard that hovers over U.S. 1 in Aventura.

“The number on the billboard is refreshed every 30 minutes, so it is quite accurate,” Gabriel Perez told Local 10′s Jonathan Vigliotti.

Perez created the technology that calculates the wait time and beams it electronically to the road.
“The program calculates from the moment a patient signs in at the hospital to when the doctor visits him in the room,” Perez said.

The high-tech billboard marks the hospital’s three-year effort to streamline emergency room care. Doctors said it is part advertisement, part bragging rights.

“In that time span, we’ve gone from a waiting time of sometimes more than an hour, which is the national average, to a new average of 10 minutes,” said Dr. Roman Skylar.

Skylar, who works in the emergency room at Aventura Hospital, said in the year since the billboard has been up, ER visits have increased by 25 percent.

South Florida doctors said in today’s growing medical market, patients have many hospital options.
“A lot of hospitals are trying to increase patient volume for themselves,” said Mount Sinai Dr. David Lang.
About a year ago, Mt. Sinai erected a billboard about a block away from Aventura Hospital’s ad. Mount Sinai’s sign boasts 24/7 care and board-certified doctors.

“People will choose to go where they have better medical service, better medical care, where they have better doctors on staff. Most people that go to ERs drive themselves. Signs like this stay in the minds of drivers who pass them regularly,” Lang said.

Representatives said that Mount Sinai Hospital, like Aventura Hospital, has seen an increase in patients since the billboard went up a year ago — 40 percent over the previous year, according to Dr. Lang.
Both hospitals agree if it’s a true emergency, forget the billboard and drive to the nearest emergency room. But they said that when it comes to medical care, you’ve got options.

Watch the video of the story above here.

Why Its Smart to Use your Cell in an Emergency

Over the last decade, we have seen how technology has improved and become an essential part of our every day lives.

One growing technological advancement is the cell phone. We went from Analog cellular phones to our newest development – smart phones. One of the most popular functions of smart phones is the ability to send SMS texting and MMS messages. A recent study showed that over 500 billion text messages were sent in 2004, which averages out to about 100 text messages per person in the world.

Since most people grab their phone when an emergency occurs, it only makes sense to create a text platform for hospital ER wait times. Studies have shown that when people are faced with minor to moderate emergencies, one of their concerns is how long they will have to wait to see a doctor. This new text platform allows people to bypass this stage by allowing them to text their zip code to 4ER411 and receive local participating hospital ER wait times. Both hospitals and patients can benefit from the new ER texting platform. Hospitals will be able to market their venue through another widely used medium, essentially brining in more revenue for their business. Patients will most certainly benefit from this since they will easily find a hospital near them that can accommodate their needs. The ER system does not come with any hidden or extra cost fees, besides what the cell phone provider fees for text messages.  Visit the official ER Texting website to get more information on how your hospital or emergency care center can benefit from this platform.

Hospitals Take ER Wait Times to Another Level

The U.S is the global texting leader with over 40 million subscribers. Its no surprise that more and more companies are using this method of communication to reach out to potential customers. One industry that has been hit with the texting frenzy is hospitals.

The idea of using your cell for an emergency is a concept that has been thought of before, just not in the ER room. ER Texting is a fairly new company that came up with the concept of texting wait times to those who are in need of emergency medial service. How it works is pretty simple: You text your zip code to 4ER411 and receive a text showing you ER wait times from local participating hospitals. Texting 4ER411 doesn’t cost you anything more than your regular texting fee, so it’s completely free to the users. Hospitals benefit from this by making it easier for patients to reach out to them and essentially help out those in need.

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