Grady Hospital Aims to Cut ER Wait Times

ATLANTA - Most people know that if they visit their local emergency room, if it isn't a life or death emergency, they will have to wait. Grady Memorial Hospital officials said Tuesday that they may have found the solution to overcrowding with patient navigators.

In April, Grady started using patient navigators in its emergency waiting room and they act as screeners, looking for patients who need care, but not emergency care.

The program is designed to speed up the process for everyone, especially those patients who can't wait for care.

When Larry Cook walked into Grady's emergency room in April with chest pains, he was having a bad day, on top of a bad week, on top of a bad year.

"Everything fell apart, I lost my job, my apartment and I lost my car. And I thought I was going to lose my mind," said Cook.

Cook met Barbara Glover, one of Grady's new patient navigators.

"He didn't want to stay, he wanted to get out," said Glover.

"I was the worst patient you could have, [because] I was having a fit. I didn't want to stay. I was crying," recalled Cook.

Glover convinced Cook to stay at Grady, because his chest pain made him an emergency.

Heading up a department that handles 100,000 patient visits each year, Dr. Leon Haley knows a good number of patients are not urgent cases and are using the ER as their health provider.

"It's not unusual for people to come in for a medication refill, or some colds. Flu, maybe a blood pressure check," said Dr. Haley.

Glover says the problem is some patients don't know where to go for care. "You have years and years of people coming to our hospital and not realizing there are personal care physicians out there," she said.

The wait for non urgent cases can run six or seven hours or longer.

That's where Glover and the other patient navigators come in after a patient has been medically screened.

"We introduce ourselves. Let them know we're patient navigators," said Glover.

The navigators help non-emergency patients get an appointment quickly at a primary care clinic, sometimes that day.

"Almost all of the patients can get an evaluation in one of our primary care settings within 72 hours," said Dr. Haley. "What it eliminates for them is a huge wait time. We can get them seen relatively quickly."

"We get a preference for them, 'Where would you like to go? Do you have a neighborhood center closer to you? Can I send you to that center?'" said Glover.

Cook, who had no doctor and no insurance, got a Grady card and an appointment with a primary care physician.

"I love it because when I come in, I don't have to wait. If I'm on time, within 20 minutes I've been seen by my doctor and am on my way out," said Cook.

There's not only the problem of the wait, there is also the money. A visit to the emergency room can cost a minimum of $300. But Grady's clinics charge a sliding fee based on income that starts at about $20.

Cook says he now feels like someone is watching out for him.

"It just feels good, because you have a personal care doctor and he does just that for you and he's your doctor," Cook said.