If you have a broken bone and need pain medicine at the emergency room in north Pinellas County, how long will you have to wait at your local hospital?

Patients waited up to an average of 65 minutes at Florida Hospital North Pinellas for some pain relief, above the national average of 62 minutes, according to a new federal database. The Florida average is 69 minutes.

Mease Countryside Hospital did not fare as well. The average wait time for, "patients who came to the emergency department with broken bones before receiving pain medication," was 87 minutes at Mease Countryside.

Mease Dunedin Hospital had too fee cases to register a number treatment of pain, but patients only had to wait on average 18 minutes in the ER before they were seen by a healthcare professional. The Florida average is 30 minutes in that category. 

Mease Hospital Dunedin Wait Time Results (Charts from Medicare.gov.)

Florida Hospital North Pinellas Wait Time Results 

Mease Countryside Hospital Wait Times

Florida is famous for its hospital billboards flashing the average ER wait time up and down highways, but this newly released data finds how long the wait really is during the course of a sample period.

A new federal database publicly released wait times averages, measuring the wait in several categories.

Key measures of ER efficiency have been posted from hospitals taking part across the country, according to a report in HealthLeaders Media.

“With precious little fanfare, Uncle Sam last month rolled out a big, fat database with seven measures comparing a service that many people—healthcare providers and patients alike—consider the most critical any hospital can provide,” writer Cheryl Clark wrote.

Data collected in 2011 and early 2012 also tracked how long it took for an ER patient to be seen by a healthcare professional and how long the wait was to get a bed if they needed admission. Other data showed how long patients spent in the ER before being sent home and whether they received a brain scan if they might have suffered a stroke. 

Clark interviewed Dr. Jesse Pines, an emergency room doctor and researcher who directs the center for healthcare quality at George Washington University.

“The theory is that when hospitals report this information, it makes them focus on it, and improve throughout their [Emergency Department],” Pines was quoted as saying.

“But it’s very hard to do. Certain performance measures are easier to fix—like simple process measures like giving patients an aspirin—than improving ED throughput, which involves development of interdisciplinary teams.”

How To Find Hospital ER Wait Times

First go to the Hospital Compare website. Then type in your ZIP code, city or local hospital. When a list of hospitals is displayed, put a checkmark next to two or three hospitals.

Scroll down to a yellow button labeled Compare Now, and click to display more details. Look for a tab called Timely and Effective Care and click that.

Finally, scroll down to a section called Timely Emergency Department Care. A green button allows you to “View More Details."

Were you surprised by any of the stats displayed?  Tell us in the comments.

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