How long are patients willing to wait in the emergency department before leaving without being seen?

Introduction: Our goal was to evaluate patients' threshold for waiting in an emergency department (ED) waiting room before leaving without being seen (LWBS). We analyzed whether willingness to wait was influenced by perceived illness severity, age, race, triage acuity level, or insurance status.

Methods: We conducted this survey-based study from March to July 2010 at an urban academic medical center.

Support for a waiting room time tracker: a survey of patients waiting in an urban ED.

Background: Emergency Department (ED) crowding and inpatient boarding lead to lengthy wait times for patients, which may cause them to choose to leave without being seen. A new initiative to improve communication with patients is to provide an estimated wait time with a "time tracker" display, but it is unclear whether ED patients would welcome this.

Objective: To estimate the proportion of ED patients who would favor a time tracker display.