With emergency room wait times a growing issue of national concern, the OHSU Emergency Department (ED) has created a new Rapid Medical Evaluation (RME) team operating during peak volume hours. The team will make use of five new rooms to evaluate and treat lower acuity patients in a streamlined approach, with the goals of improving patient care and experience, decreasing wait times, and decreasing overall length of stay.

Additionally, the department will make use of a new post-treatment waiting room to provide greater comfort for patients awaiting final lab results, and to free up acute treatment areas for other patients.

Preliminary results are encouraging, with patients seen by RME experiencing a 35% reduction in ED length of stay as compared to similar patients before the intervention.