ArticleInternational journal of emergency medicine2011
The effects of publishing emergency department wait time on patient utilization patterns in a community with two emergency department sites: a retrospective, quasi-experiment design.
Article in International journal of emergency medicine, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Impact of announced wait time information on emergency department overcrowding mitigation: a simulation study.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2026Article
- Use of a Semiautomatic Text Message System to Improve Satisfaction With Wait Time in the Adult Emergency Department: Cross-sectional Survey Study.JMIR medical informatics · 2022Article
- Availability of Emergency Department Wait Times Information: A Patient-Centered Needs Assessment.Emergency medicine international · 2021Article
- The Obstetrics Gynecology and Children's Hospital Emergency Room waiting time before hospitalization.African health sciences · 2013Article
- What are Patients' Concerns about Medical Errors in an Emergency Department?Sultan Qaboos University medical journal · 2012Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundProviding emergency department (ED) wait time information to the public has been suggested as a mechanism to reduce lengthy ED wait times (by enabling patients to select the ED site with shorter wait time), but the effects of such a program have not been evaluated. We evaluated the effects of such a program in a community with two ED sites.
methodsDescriptive statistics for wait times of the two sites before and after the publication of wait time information were used to evaluate the effects of the publication of wait time information on wait times. Multivariate logistical regression was used to test whether or not individual patients used published wait time to decide which site to visit.
resultsWe found that the rates of wait times exceeding 4 h, and the 95th percentile of wait times in the two sites decreased after the publication of wait time information, even though the average wait times experienced a slight increase. We also found that after controlling for other factors, the site with shorter wait time had a higher likelihood of being selected after the publication of wait time information, but there was no such relationship before the publication.
conclusionsThese findings were consistent with the hypothesis that the publication of wait time information leads to patients selecting the site with shorter wait time. While publishing ED wait time information did not improve average wait time, it reduced the rates of lengthy wait times.
Identifiers
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Registered trials
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