Hospitals and health systems are making progress to reduce emergency department length of stay, though ED boarding remains a significant challenge for high-volume facilities, according to a new report from the Emergency Department Benchmarking Alliance.
EDBA, a consortium of more than 1,500 EDs nationwide, shared its report on 2023 performance measures with Becker's Oct. 4. The data is based on survey responses from 1,165 EDs covering more than 40 million patients.
Three takeaways:
1. The average overall length of stay for ED patients was 184 minutes in 2023, down from 205 minutes in 2022. The 2023 figure marks a return to prepandemic levels. In 2019, the average length of stay was 182 minutes.
"The data for 2023 shows that EDBA leaders have done an incredible job of reducing length of stay for admitted patients, especially in EDs with volumes under 40K," the alliance said in the report.
2. ED boarding times decreased in 2023, though high-volume EDs are still experiencing significant boarding burdens, according to the report. EDBA cited federal data showing average boarding time fell from 182 minutes in 2022 to 110 minutes in 2023. For EDs with more than 80,000 patients annually, this figure was 178 minutes.
3. The percentage of patients who left EDs before completing treatment was 2.8%. While this figure is down from 4.9% in 2022, it is still elevated from baseline levels and represents about 4.5 million people who did not complete an ED visit in 2023, EDBA said.
"ED operations have been compromised since 2020, including impediments to hospital inpatient flow, ED boarding of inpatients, and impaired ED flow," the alliance said. "There is an ongoing need for dedicated hospital and ED leadership to preserve ED flow, quality of care and high-quality ED staff."