How to Increase ER Traffic in Your Hospital
Many hospitals around the country are struggling with the same issues: It’s fiercely competitive, we know people want better service, we know it feeds the rest of the hospital. But what can you do?
Here’s one suggestion: implement live ER wait times available to potential patients via text message. That’s right. The system is fairly new, but is gaining in strength and popularity due to its low cost and incredible returns. Some hospitals have seen increases of over 25% in their ER traffic.
HCA was the first to try it in South Florida in 2009 and the results were startling. So startling, in fact, that they went from trying it out in 6 hospitals to implementing it in over 200 hospitals in just a few months.
But now the best part is competition: ERTexting is offering a low-cost live ER wait time platform to hospitals nationwide. And the pricing is tiered to the size of the hospital’s market as well as multiple hospital groups. They even have marketing co-op programs for hospital groups that qualify.
The system, known as “4ER411” is available anywhere in the United States and boasts an ease of use for the patient end-user. The patient simply texts their zip code to “4ER411” on their cell phone and they instantly receive the ER wait times for participating hospitals in the area. Simple. Effective. And a lot less
expensive than advertising ER services on traditional media.
Find out more online at ERTexting.com
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.
RSS Feed- Emergency Room Challenges: Options to Ease Overcrowding
- Baptist Health System, Birmingham Ala., Selects ERTexting for Communication of Emergency Room Wait Times
- Epic Snowstorm in Northeast Demonstrates Growing Role of Text Capability for Patients and Hospitals
- Press Ganey Associates Reports the Top 10 Metro Areas for Emergency Department Patient Satisfaction
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