CASA GRANDE, Ariz. – Waiting four hours to be treated for an emergency is no longer a reality at Banner Casa Grande Medical Center. On November 1, 2016, Banner Casa Grande partnered with TeamHealth, a physician outsource and management company, to improve the overall patient experience.

With new processes implemented, Banner Casa Grande’s emergency department has reduced door-to-provider time, improved patient interactions with medical staff, as well as cut the average discharge time in half. 

Prior to November, the average wait time to see a doctor in the emergency department was approximately one hour and six minutes and nearly four and a half hours to be discharged. During the month of November, patients waited an average of 19 minutes to see a provider and were released within two and a half hours. 

“The dramatic decrease in discharge time is the result of separating patients into two sections, those that can stand up and those that cannot,” said Kevin Light, nursing director of the emergency department at Banner Casa Grande Medical Center. “Physicians and nursing staff are able to treat these groups of patients differently and in a timely manner, which has resulted in a faster turnaround time for available patient rooms.” 

The hospital’s “would recommend” score, calculated by post-treatment patient surveys, increased from the seventh percentile up to the 98th percentile. Patient’s also noted that interacting with nurses, physicians and staff of the emergency department was overall more pleasant.

“It’s our goal to provide treatment to patients and then allow them to get on with their life,” said Rona Curphy, chief executive officer of Banner Casa Grande Medical Center. “Our new emergency department process reduces the stress of our staff as well as the patient, allowing us to offer excellent patient care in half of the time.

Banner Casa Grande Medical Center is a full-service, community hospital providing comprehensive quality care to the Casa Grande Valley as well as the surrounding communities of western Pinal County. The hospital offers a variety of medical specialties including: cardiology, gastroenterology, gynecology, neurology, oncology, pediatrics, psychiatry and urology. Banner Casa Grande is part of Banner Health, a nonprofit healthcare system with 29 acute-care hospitals in seven states.