RWJBarnabas Health cut emergency department wait times across 12 hospitals — without building a single new facility. By redesigning patient intake, clarifying staff roles, and using a "pull-to-full" room assignment model, patients now see a provider in under 20 minutes. The system's rate of patients leaving without being seen dropped below 0.5%, even as ED volumes kept climbing.
Emergency department overcrowding is a nationwide challenge, but RWJBarnabas Health in New Jersey found a fix that didn't require a construction crew. The 12-hospital system overhauled its front-end ED workflow — starting with a brief greeter-nurse intake, rapid "pull-to-full" room placement, and real-time team communication supported by EPIC — to get patients in front of a provider faster. No major capital investment required.
The results speak for themselves. Arrival-to-provider times now clock in under 20 minutes systemwide (under 10 minutes at some locations), and the rate of patients leaving without being seen has fallen below 0.5%. Crucially, these gains held even as ED visit volumes rose year over year across hospitals ranging from approximately 40,000 to over 101,000 annual visits.
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Why it matters: ED crowding strains clinicians and delays patient care. RWJBarnabas's model demonstrates that standardized workflows and cross-departmental coordination — not expensive expansions — can meaningfully improve throughput, offering a replicable blueprint for health systems nationwide.
