Connecticut lawmakers are considering a bill that would require hospitals to collect and report data on emergency department wait times and volumes. Hospitals, meanwhile, contend such rules will not help solve emergency department boarding and capacity issues.
On Feb. 26, lawmakers heard testimony on Senate Bill 181, the Hartford Courant reported Feb. 27. The proposed legislation would require annual data on bed capacity, the number of ED patients admitted to the hospital; average length of time from arrival to admission, among other information to be posted on the state department of public health's website.
The Connecticut Hospital Association said there are more critical actions that need to be taken to address ED overcrowding and capacity issues, like expanding the number of emergency department beds, fixing prior authorization delays and expanding behavioral health services at the community level.
"I don’t want to give the impression that we need to have the data to solve this," James Iacobellis, senior vice president of government and regulatory affairs at the Connecticut Hospital Association, said during the hearing, according to the report. "We know what some of these issues are and if we're going to start to solve them, let's solve them."
If the bill does pass and requires state funding, Mr. Iacobellis said he is worried hospitals could have a harder time securing funding for other ED initiatives.
Some emergency department physicians at the hearing supported the bill, saying they do not anticipate it would significantly add to workloads, given health records typically contain the data the bill would require.
"We know ERs are crowded, but we do not know the details or the trajectories, which make it hard to know where we're going and what effect any interventions may have," Christopher Moore, MD, emergency physician at Yale New Haven Hospital and co-chair of the state's emergency department boarding and chronic workgroup, said during the hearing. "This is why it's such a crucial first step."
Stamford (Conn.) Health and Hartford (Conn.) Healthcare were among those who opposed the bill, while more than three dozen clinicians and patients submitted testimony supporting it.
In neighboring Massachusetts, which has an advanced data reporting system to monitor boarding, emergency department overcrowding has intensified in recent months. The state has deemed several regions "high risk" due to limited hospital capacity, with the Massachusetts Hospital Association pointing to a lack of space in post-acute care settings as a key driver of worsening boarding issues.