Safe staffing committees can reduce Maryland’s lengthy ER wait times
by Anna Palmisano, Commentary, Maryland Matters
For the past decade, Maryland emergency patients have suffered the longest emergency room wait times out of 50 states, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Maryland ER patients are currently waiting over four hours on average for help, while some spend the night in the ER wait room or wait as long as 24 hours for care.
While blame for long wait times is sometimes attributed to overuse of the ER by patients, the actual number of ER visits per 1,000 population in Maryland is among the lowest in the U.S., according to Becker’s Hospital Review.
Maryland-based patient groups and health care workers have now formed an alliance called the Patient-Worker Collaborative to support legislation for a Safe Staffing Act. The collaborative is a coalition with over a million Marylanders including the health care workers’ union (1199 SEIU), Marylanders for Patient Rights, NAACP-Maryland State Conference, the American Federation of Teachers-Maryland, the Maryland Medical Society (Med Chi) and many more groups and individuals.