The parent company of The Villages Regional Hospital recently partnered with outside consultants to “further optimize” its emergency department operations.
Officials from Central Florida Health (CFH), which also oversees Leesburg Regional Medical Center, said they are well aware that for many area residents, their first experience with the hospital is a visit to the emergency department. They added that those who work in that area take their duty to treat each patient “with excellence” as quickly possible quite seriously.
CFH officials said the most up-to-date information on wait and discharge times for the hospital in The Villages is from Sept. 1-30, and it is being compared to similar data available at Medicare.gov for a 12-month period beginning April 1, 2016. Officials said the information also proves that numerous steps taken to improve patients’ experiences in the emergency department are working.
For September 2018, the average wait time for patients to be seen by a physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant who staffs the emergency department’s fast track was 12 minutes – 75 percent less than the 49-minute wait time listed at Medicare.gov.
The hospital’s clinical care team also has streamlined the process for patients admitted with serious medical conditions that need an inpatient room, either for observation or care. For September 2018, the average wait time for patients to be admitted from the time of their arrival was 275 minutes – 39 percent less than the 454-minute wait time listed at Medicare.gov. And officials said work will continue in this area to make patients’ time in the emergency department as short as possible – without sacrificing the quality of care.
For patients who come to the emergency department with minor injuries or illnesses, a separate SuperTrack treatment area recently has been implemented. Officials said the goal of SuperTrack is to further segment the patient population for those who require less intensive care, allowing the emergency department to “decompress the treatment and waiting areas” for all patients. For September 2018, the average total time for those patients with minor injury and illnesses improved to 227 minutes from the 246-minute total time cited at Medicare.gov. Officials said the overall goal is to eventually reduce this total time to less than two hours – and progress continues to be made in this area as well.
“We are proud to have the honor of serving The Villages community,” said Don Henderson, CFH president and CEO. “And I am especially proud of the great strides being made by our dedicated team members to continuously work to improve our medical services.”
Henderson added that any patient who has concerns with care rendered at The Villages Regional Hospital should contact him directly via email at contactceo@centflhealth.org.
