The system lets patients without serious conditions do most of their waiting at home, rather than in a crowded emergency room.
MAKING APPOINTMENTS
Inland Area hospitals that accept emergency room reservations:
Riverside County
• Desert Regional Medical Center, Palm Springs: inquicker.com
• Hemet Valley Medical Center:) physiciansforhealthyhospitals.com or erexpress.com
• Inland Valley Medical Center, Wildomar: inlandvalleymedcenter.com
• John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital, Indio: inquicker.com
• Menifee Valley Medical Center: physiciansforhealthyhospitals.com or erexpress.com
• Rancho Springs Medical Center, Murrieta: ranchospringsmedcenter.com
San Bernardino County
(All can be accessed at inquicker.com)
• Community Hospital of San Bernardino
• St. Bernardine Medical Center and Community Hospital of San Bernardino
• Urgent Care of Highland
• Urgent Care of Fontana
A trip to the emergency room is never pleasant. It often takes more than three hours from arrival to departure and waiting rooms can be crowded with sick or injured people accompanied by family members.googleoff: allgoogleon: all
To ease the pain of the ER, a number of local hospitals are using a reservation system where patients with minor ailments can reserve a time online and do much of their waiting at home.googleoff: allgoogleon: all
Medical centers in Hemet, Menifee, Murrieta, Palm Springs, San Bernardino, Temecula and Wildomar are among the hospitals offering ER reservations.googleoff: allgoogleon: all
“One of the biggest dissatisfactions is the long waits,” said Joel Bergenfeld, chief executive officer for Physicians for Healthy Hospitals, which operates the Hemet Valley and Menifee Valley medical centers. “All patients in an ER need to be triaged and are seen according to medical need. ER Express will give the patient a chance to evaluate the wait in real time and schedule a reservation.”googleoff: allgoogleon: all
Reservations are not an immediate pass into an examination room. Under the system, patients can go online and reserve an available time – often more than 12 hours away – but emergency department staff will still treat patients based on the severity of their ailment.googleoff: allgoogleon: all
“It doesn’t mean they’ll jump in front of someone having a heart attack,” said Sahil Patel, president of ER Express, an Atlanta-based company providing appointment services for Physicians for Healthy Hospitals.googleoff: allgoogleon: all
Besides setting a time for an appointment, patients can see if a different hospital has a shorter wait.googleoff: allgoogleon: all
“We like to think of it as ‘call ahead seating,’” Bergenfeld said. “Once their reservation is submitted, the emergency department receives alerts notifying them of their incoming patient and the emergency department prepares accordingly.”googleoff: allgoogleon: all
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the nation’s emergency departments saw more than 136 million patient visits in 2011, the highest number ever recorded. More than 40 percent of those were injury related.googleoff: allgoogleon: all
Experts estimate emergency visits are likely to be around 140 million currently, according to the American College of Emergency physicians.googleoff: allgoogleon: all
Area emergency rooms see upward of 100 patients each day and waits can stretch from two to four hours, depending on the time of days and number of patients.googleoff: allgoogleon: all
The numbers have increased the past couple of years under the Affordable Care Act, which has expanded coverage to millions of previously uninsured residents.googleoff: allgoogleon: all
“Low reimbursement has limited private access,” Bergenfeld said. “Eventually patients with minor issue will find alternatives to access the system other than our ERs (such as) urgent care, clinics, private physician offices.”googleoff: allgoogleon: all
Patel said the increase can’t totally be attributed to what is known as Obamacare, but said with new insurance, people who would not have sought treatment in the past are more likely to now.googleoff: allgoogleon: all
But they don’t always know where to go.