Benchmarking facilitates process improvement in the emergency department.

The emergency department (ED) is an important source of revenue for hospitals. Patient satisfaction is necessary to any effort to optimize revenues. If patients fail to move efficiently through the ED, their perception of the experience might be negative. To facilitate process improvement in the ED, hospitals need to identify critical success factors and appropriate measures, collect data on their patient-flow process, compare those data with industry benchmarks, and then determine areas for improvement. With this information, an action plan can be designed to improve patient-throughput time and patient satisfaction without lowering the quality of care delivered.