FAQs

What was the motivation for creating Emergency Excellence (EmEx)?
The 2006 Institute of Medicine report ‘Hospital-Based Emergency Care: At the Breaking Point’ exposed our underperforming emergency care system and charged emergency medicine leaders with establishing evidence-based performance measures. Emergency Excellence has done exactly that, by applying our benchmarking, surveying, and national recognition program, we give your emergency department the tools you need for continuous performance improvement.

How many benchmarks do you measure and how do you identify best practices?
EmEx-Compare includes over 100 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) covering all aspects of emergency department operations. Each KPI was carefully selected to be both highly relevant to emergency medicine and possessing an evidence basis. To accomplish this project, EmEx reviewed the administrative EM literature (informative references are hyperlinked in the report). Best practices were derived from the literature and from the opinion of emergency department leaders.

Who are the “key stakeholders” that are surveyed? How long will it take each of them to complete their survey?
Emergency Excellence sends confidential, web-based surveys to all your key emergency department stakeholders, including:

  • Emergency physicians
  • Emergency nurses
  • Midlevel providers (if applicable)
  • Ancillary staff (including techs and clerks)
  • Emergency medicine residents (if applicable)
  • Key medical staff
  • Key hospital administrators
  • Additional stakeholders upon request (i.e. EMS, community leaders)

There is no limit to the number of individuals surveyed in the EmEx-Compare price. The survey group can be expanded or contracted to include the individuals your hospital wants surveyed.

The emergency physician and emergency nurse surveys usually take under 10 minutes to complete and the rest of the surveys take under 5 minutes to complete. Recipients receive an initial email message and two reminders (until the survey is completed). We average over a 75% completion rate with the emergency physicians and nurses. We have found that emergency department stakeholders generally offer detailed and uninhibited feedback when the survey is anonymous and sent to a third party.

How long does it take to complete the EmEx-Compare data worksheet?
Typically, several emergency department leaders (the emergency department Medical Director, Nurse Director/Manager and someone representing hospital administration) spend several hours to collaboratively complete the ‘Leaders’ Data Tool.’ An emergency department Information System can often be used to calculate certain turnaround time intervals shortening the time to complete this worksheet.

Which EDs does EmEx benchmark against?
Emergency Excellence benchmarks KPIs against other participating emergency departments and published best practices. We further categorize emergency departments based on volume, locale, and type of hospital to provide additional comparisons.

Can my group/network be benchmarked both separately and with all other EmEx subscribers?
Yes. In addition to our external benchmarking results, we will also internally benchmark any group of related hospitals.

I heard you offer a full satisfaction guarantee for EmEx-Compare?
Yes, we do. We fully guarantee your satisfaction with EmEx-Compare. We anticipate that you will find that EmEx-Compare is an exceptional value and will want to become an annual subscriber. However, if you do not value the benchmark report and agree not to use it in any manner, we will gladly refund your purchase.

Is participation with Emergency Excellence confidential?
Yes, it is. Emergency Excellence does not name participating emergency department unless you agree we can do so. Of course, high performers awarded the Emergency Center of Excellence enjoy publicizing their achievement.

Are there any HIPAA concerns with EmEx-Compare? Do you use any patient identifiers?
We do not request patient-specific data and so the HIPAA Privacy rule is not invoked.

When will my EmEx-Compare report be ready?
The turnaround time from subscribing until the EmEx-Compare report is finalized typically takes several weeks. The key determinant is how fast the ‘Leaders’ Data Tool’ is completed and the grouped email lists (for stakeholder surveys) are provided to EmEx. Once Emergency Excellence receives the necessary data, your emergency department will receive its complete EmEx-Compare report within about two weeks.

What is the Emergency Center of Excellence?
Emergency Excellence created this first national designation for superior emergency care. Top EmEx-Compare performers – the upper quintile – become eligible for the Emergency Center of Excellence designation, pending on-site verification.

Describe the EmEx-Award process?
A representative of EmEx visits your emergency department for an on-site assessment that takes about 6 hours to conduct. The reviewer observes your emergency department’s processes, speaks with your leaders and staff, and reviews charts and other information. A favorable review confirming the EmEx-Compare results confers the Emergency Center of Excellence designation for two years.

What was the rationale behind creating the Emergency Center of Excellence?
In the “Business Excellence” model, formal recognition programs are an important staff motivator for performance improvement.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_excellence). EmEx applied this concept to emergency medicine, concentrating on customers, stakeholders, and processes. We hope that the Emergency Center of Excellence designation raises the bar for emergency medicine performance. Furthermore, we feel best practices should be defined by practicing doctors and nurses, not bureaucrats or regulators.

There are many emergency department consultants, why use EmEx-Consult?
The EmEx-Compare process brings perspective to your emergency department’s strength and weaknesses. Our consulting process addresses concerns with a rapid improvement plan (RIP). We encourage positive change through awareness, motivation, and team participation in problem solving.

EmEx has no duality of business interests related to other business lines. We do not hold a financial interest in billing or contract management companies or emergency department information systems. Emergency Excellence exclusively performs emergency medicine benchmarking and performance improvement. Emergency Excellence is led by actively practicing emergency practitioners with strong leadership experience in complex environments.

Why is participation in EmEx-Compare required as part of EmEx-Consult?
EmEx-Compare provides a guide map to drive the performance improvement process. Quality and efficiency improvements come from the desire to achieve best practices in individual benchmarks and eventually to become an Emergency Center of Excellence.

Why should my emergency department subscribe to EmEx-Contact, your patient callback and satisfaction survey service?
Please visit our EmEx-Contact page

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