A simple triage fix cuts emergency department wait times by 11 minutes

Emergency departments across the country face a common challenge: how to reduce long wait times and overcrowding without adding more beds, hiring more staff or expanding facilities. New research suggests one answer may be hiding in plain sight — making better decisions about where patients receive care.

A study published in the INFORMS journal Management Science, developed by researchers from Harvard University, Oxford University and Mayo Clinic, found that a simple, data-driven triage protocol reduced emergency department length of stay by 11 minutes without compromising patient safety or requiring additional resources. Tested in a 13-week field trial involving more than 11,000 patients at Mayo Clinic Arizona, the protocol relies only on information hospitals already collect during triage — and could be implemented quickly in many emergency departments without new staff, equipment or software, at a time when emergency medicine remains among the specialties reporting the highest burnout rates.

Here's a closer look at how the protocol works and what was found.