Mercy Hospital and Medical Center

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EMP increases patient satisfaction from 10th percentile to 99th, as measured by Press Ganey In four months!

• Length of Stay dropped over 60 minutes for all patients
• Wait Time to see the physician reduced by 30 minutes
• Patient Satisfaction skyrocketed from the 10^th percentile to 99^th
• Staff morale and satisfaction still rising

Prior to partnership with EMP, the ED at Mercy Hospital in Chicago was bogged down with unacceptably long wait times and dismal patient satisfaction.  Patients were waiting almost 100 minutes on average to see a doctor; overall throughput time was around 300 minutes.  Mercy's reputation for patient care was excellent, but since the ED throughput was broken local residents were beginning to seek care elsewhere.

EMP began our collaboration with Mercy Hospital by evaluating the systems in place and closely analyzing ED flow.  Among our immediate steps in the ED, EMP's innovative triage program, PhysicianFirst, was launched.  With PhysicianFirst, patients see a physician before they are even registered. A physician, nurse, paramedic and technician evaluate the patient and can order tests, perform EKGs and start IVs immediately, reducing the overall length of stay and increasing patient care and safety.  Registration occurs after the initial evaluation by the medical team.  The effect on key benchmarks is dramatic.   Patients' wait time to see a doctor dropped a remarkable 30 minutes on average .  Overall length of stay in the ED was reduced by an entire hour.

Improving the patient experience is key to the Mercy Hospital mission.  EMP's partnership with Mercy accordingly focused on improving all aspects of patient care.  Shortly after coming on board, EMP led a two-day workshop for all departments that impact the delivery of emergency care: nursing, radiology, lab, security, guest services, and housekeeping. By the end of this two-day symposium, staff had the tools they needed to redefine the way they were perceived by the community and to own the process of recovery. The results have been significant in that both staff and patient satisfaction have noticeably improved.  Patient satisfaction alone skyrocketed from the 10th percentile to the 99th percentile as measured by Press Ganey over the initial 4 month period of the partnership with EMP. 

By significantly reducing wait times in the ED, the walkout rate for patients dropped from around 8% to less than 2%.  Reduction in walkouts results will lead to improved revenue for the hospital.  And, the greater effect of fewer walkouts from the ED cannot be emphasized enough:  in addition to improving hospital revenue, fewer walkouts improve community reputation and ultimately, greatly enhance staff satisfaction and professional pride.

EMP has partnered with Mercy Hospital and Medical Center since September 14, 2009.