• Call for a new CMS Condition of Participation requiring hospitals to develop contingency plans when inpatient occupancy exceeds 85 percent (or similar threshold), including a load balancing plan and a utilization plan of alternative space and staffing for inpatients when ED licensed bed capacity is occupied.
• Request to modify the CMS measure, “Median Time from ED Arrival to ED Departure for Discharged ED Patients,” to create a bright line standard (e.g., four hours) with a percentage performance (i.e., measure and report the percentage of ED visits that exceeded a certain time frame, rather than just the current median time in minutes that allows everyone to fail together and not reduce the ranking).
• Urge CMS, instead of sunsetting the measure in 2024, to maintain the “Admit Decision Time to ED Departure Time for Admitted Patients” measure in the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program—one of the only measures available to track this statistic and provide incentives/enforcement to help reduce wait times and boarding.

ACEP has been standing up for the interest of emergency physicians and your patients for decades and we will continue to do so.

Ms. Calaway is ACEP’s Managing Director for Content and Communications Integration.