Want to know how long a wait you have at the Bayonne Medical Center Emergency Room?
If you’re in the area of Journal Square in Jersey City or near the Holland Tunnel, you just have to look at the newly installed billboards that give a live time report of how long the waiting times are.
Daniel Kane, president and executive director of the Bayonne Medical Center, said the live reports underscore the hospital’s commitment to providing quality care in a timely and efficient manner. Bayonne Medical Center patients wait less than 30 minutes on average to be seen by a doctor for emergency care, compared to waits of up to four hours at other area hospitals.
“With these billboards, we have reaffirmed our promise to provide our patients and the residents of Hudson County with quality care without having to wait in an emergency room for hours,” Kane said. “We’re dedicated to providing our patients the best possible care close to home.”
We reorganized how things are done.” – Daniel Kane
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“We picked those locations because we thought they would make sense with the high concentration of people in those areas,” Kane said. “We wanted residents throughout the county to become more familiar with Bayonne Medical Center.”
Bayonne Medical Center is the first hospital in the tri-state area to publicly post its emergency room wait-times, featuring the average time it takes from entering the door at the ER to seeing a medical provider. Bayonne Medical Center’s confidence in its ability to provide quality care in minutes is further evidence of significant improvements implemented across the hospital, including the completion of a new cardiac and vascular interventional unit, the only hospital-based PET/CT scanner in Hudson County, the use of electronic medical records, a new cardiac cath lab, and a family health center. These improvements highlight the hospital’s impressive strides since it was saved from bankruptcy in 2008.
Even in this challenging economy, the hospital managed to turn its finances around, so that instead of losing millions weekly as it had prior to the 2008 sale, the hospital has made a moderate profit each year since – and still manages to begin upgrading many of the services and equipment necessary to keep the hospital viable.
“This is allowing us to make substantial capital investments, improving the facility and equipment,” he said. “In 2009 alone, we made $3 million in upgrades to our hospital information system. We expect to have electronic medical records in the emergency department by the beginning of the summer.”
He said within three years, the hospital’s whole medical records system should be electronic.
Sometimes called an Emergency Department, the ER provides treatment to patients suffering every sort of ailment, many of which could be life-threatening and require immediate attention.
This is often the face of the hospital most people see when they are most vulnerable, and that is why management – under the new ownership – decided to make upgrading it a high priority when taking over last year.
“We have made some substantial improvements in operations in clinical services and emergency room management,” Kane said.
This includes the “Door to Doctor in 30 minutes Emergency Room Care” initiative, which was put into place last year. This provides an average wait time of 30 minutes or less to patients arriving at the emergency department. Hospitality associates will greet the patient and family upon arrival at the medical center, and will be available to provide ongoing communication and support during the patient’s stay.
“We reorganized how things are done,” Kane said. “If a patient needs an MRI and x-ray, it gets done quickly. If the patient needs to be admitted, we get that patient to a bed as soon as possible.”
He said the hospital also replaced the security guards with emergency medical technicians, who know about procedures and can help facilitate patient care.
Kane said many of these changes were enhanced by bringing on Dr. Mark Spektor as director of the department last year.
“In an emergency, every minute counts and patients can be confident in our ability to provide the highest quality care in just minutes,” said Mark Spektor, DO, MBA, FACEP, Emergency Department Chief at Bayonne Medical Center.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.