Local Hospital Offers Shorter Wait Times For ER

Wait times in hospital emergency rooms are quickly on the rise. Many dread the prospect of waiting hours on end for treatment in an ER, but JFK Memorial Hospital in Indio is working to change that.

Doctors believe it’s an avoidable situation.

“We noticed, as well as other ER’s around the country, waits of two, three, six, twelve, fourteen hours. In some areas, there are waits up to 24 hours,” said Dr. Andrew Cyrus. “A lot of the illnesses are usually non-urgent and can usually be taken care of in an urgent care or an urgent care setting.”

JFK started using a new software called “InQuickER” about 8 months ago. The new program allows patients to log in online and then pick an appointment time. It works to prevent customer time spent in the busy hospital lobby.

“This allows them to come in, be seated within fifteen minutes in a separate part of the emergency room, and it makes the wait a lot more pleasant,” said Cyrus

Use of the new system is not free though. The hospital has lowered their price to $9.99. The good news however is that if you arrive at your appointment and are not seeing a physician in fifteen minutes, you get your money back.

Thus far, patients have been very receptive the to the new program.

“Patients are using it,” said Sharonda Brown, spokesperson from JFK. “We survey all our patients to find out about patient satisfaction and we have more people extremely excited about it, they’re talking about and word of mouth is getting through the valley.”