ED Boarding: Its Impact on Patients, Providers, and Hospital Finances
Each additional hour a patient boards in the emergency department (ED) consumes critical resources, reduces operational efficiency, and takes away valuable time from patient care. With the daily cost of ED boarding reaching up to twice that of inpatient care,1 ED boarding has become a financial burden for many health systems. Delayed and missed care, medication errors, and increased morbidity and in-hospital mortality have all been shown to increase with emergency department boarding.2 It has also been shown to contribute to clinician burnout and increased rates of verbal and physical abuse from boarding patients.3
Factors that contribute to ED boarding
- Lack of Inpatient Bed Availability: Limited inpatient bed capacity often creates bottlenecks in patient flow, extending ED boarding times, and impacting the ability to begin patient treatment.
- Staffing Shortages: Critical care and specialty unit staffing shortages hinder patient flow, contributing to longer ED stays while patients wait for specialist care.
- Extended Diagnostic and Treatment Times: Patients needing specialty diagnostics or consultations can face longer stays awaiting results, treatments, or specialist availability.
- Communication Delays: Inefficient communication between the ED, specialist, and inpatient teams, often due to manual processes or disjointed systems, can prolong ED transfers.
How integrated virtual specialists help break the ED bottleneck
Integrated virtual specialty care can improve ED efficiency by enabling access to specialists whenever needed. Virtual consults available on-demand allow patients to be triaged, assessed, treated, and discharged or admitted efficiently. Timely virtual specialist consults – whether for TeleStroke, TelePsychiatry, TeleCardiology, or other specialties – empower ED staff to make quicker, more informed decisions. This allows for:
- Appropriate emergency treatments
- Faster admissions or disposition planning
- Safe, timely discharges when inpatient care is unnecessary
Improving ED utilization and financial performance
Virtual specialist integration doesn’t only enhance care quality; it also alleviates the financial pressures associated with prolonged ED stays. By reducing ED boarding, hospitals can free up critical resources, reduce overhead costs, and improve throughput, creating a more financially sustainable emergency department.
Better ED utilization impacts quality and performance
Enhancing ED utilization with integrated virtual specialists creates positive outcomes for both hospitals and patients. With faster access to specialist care, hospitals see reduced operational costs and increased patient satisfaction. The streamlined flow reduces unnecessary ED wait times, reallocating resources more efficiently and improving patient experience.
As patients receive faster-specialized care, satisfaction improves, strengthening the hospital’s quality metrics, reducing ED staff burnout, and supporting better clinical outcomes overall.
Ready to reimagine ED efficiency?
With integrated virtual specialists, hospitals have the opportunity to reimagine ED care – delivering faster, more efficient diagnoses, treatment, and disposition planning that benefit both the bottom line and patient outcomes.
Does your hospital need faster access to specialists in the ED? AmplifyMD can help you improve outcomes in the ED. Learn more about our network of specialists in 15+ fields and our virtual care efficiency platform.
