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ER waits in Massachusetts longest at teaching hospitals

Quality Improvement Monitor, March 30, 2007

It takes two to three hours on average to receive care in a Massachusetts hospital emergency room (ER), but some patients spend four to five hours in the ERs of several large teaching hospitals before being discharged, according to the Boston Globe.

More than 80,000 people during one year had visits of upward of eight hours, according to a report commissioned by the Globe.

Between October 2004 and September 2005, the time spent in the ER, from registration to discharge, ranged from 1.4 hours at tiny Baystate Mary Lane Hospital in Ware to 5 1/2 hours at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, according to the report provided by the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium, the Globe reported.

It took an average of four to five hours to treat patients at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, while visits at Boston Medical Center typically lasted 2.8 hours, according to the Globe.

For more information, click here http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/other/articles/2007/03/25/at_the_er_the_stay_can_reach_8_hours/

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