Media Center

August 2007

No-Wait ER Continues to Satisfy Region
Hudson Valley Hospital Center Still First and Only

Cortlandt Manor, NY –Two years ago, Hudson Valley Hospital Center began treating emergency room patients with a system in place that revolutionized the industry. With the new “no-wait” concept the staff was trained, additional space was added, and patients began moving from the waiting room to the treatment area in record time.

The registration desk was torn down, a triage system was put in place where a greeter gets the patient to a registered nurse within minutes of arrival, and collecting important patient information left until later on in the process with portable computers at the bedside.
“Our Emergency Department has grown significantly in size over the last two years. We are experiencing more visits than ever, as the surrounding communities have learned of the expedited turnaround times and improvements we’ve made,” states Ron Nutovits, Director of Emergency Medicine at HVHC. The number of emergency room visits continue to climb from 30,000 in 2005 to 32,800 in 2006 to a projected 33,000 in 2007. “People choose to come here in an emergency. We hear it when someone is brought in by ambulance, and we hear it from the physicians,” states Maryann Maffei, RN, clinical nurse manager. Patient satisfaction scores have soared since the inception of the no-wait ER. Rankings show that HVHC’s ER is consistently in the 90th percentile, which puts the hospital in the top 10% of hospitals across the country for patient satisfaction.

“There’s an amazing shift in waiting time since our no-wait system began,” states John C. Federspiel, hospital president. “Waiting time here begins from the moment the patient walks through the door, and we have found that waiting time to see a physician has decreased by 60%.”

This program has been in progress for two years and is still seeing dramatic results. With so much attention on long waits in emergency rooms around the country, Hudson Valley Hospital Center has cut waiting time drastically and can truly be called a no-wait ER.