CEP America's RME program is revolutionizing patient flow and ED efficiency at a growing number of sites throughout the nation. Read our RME case studies, hear what other satisfied clients have to say about CEP America’s RME program, and discover 10 ways that RME can transform your ED.

10 Ways CEP America’s Rapid Medical Evaluation® (RME) Program Can Transform Your Emergency Department (ED)

1. Time to Provider: Faster

   Time to Provider (TTP) is the most influential factor affecting patient satisfaction. Fundamentally changing the way patients are treated in the ED, our proprietary RME program enables treatment to become a fluid process based on demand and resource availability, which helps to significantly accelerate TTP.

2. Patient Elopements: Fewer

   Our RME program has proven time and again to dramatically decrease the number of patients who leave without being seen, thereby increasing hospital revenue. With revenue collected per patient averaging $375 (per California Hospital Association), this can represent a significant increase to your hospital’s bottom line.

3. Patient Satisfaction: Higher

   Lower patient wait times achieved through our RME program translate into higher patient satisfaction levels. CEP America client hospitals typically score in the upper percentiles of patient satisfaction surveys, and in many cases, at the very top of their respective cohorts.

4. Ambulance Diversion: Lower

   Many patients who arrive by ambulance are sicker than the average, and more often hospitalized. The loss of even a few of these patients on a regular basis can impact the hospital's bottom line significantly. Depending upon the level of diversion you are experiencing, significant revenue may be captured with an efficiently run ED and fewer diversion hours thanks to our RME program.

5. Patient Volume: Larger

   In today’s fast-paced world, time is a precious commodity to all. A reputation for expeditious service develops quickly for EDs using our RME program, and "word-of-mouth" soon brings more patients to your ED doors.

6. Virtual ED Expansion: Smarter

   Our RME process allows patients to be evaluated by the appropriate provider in an appropriate area. In fact, many ED patients never have to occupy a bed in the main ED. In effect, RME virtually expands the ED with minimal physical improvements, thus saving future hospital construction costs. At one of our client sites caring for close to 100,000 patients per year, 50% of the patients are cared for in the RME area, which comprises less than 10% of the ED space.

7. Patient Safety: Greater

   The cumulative effect of decreased TTP and increased patient satisfaction is fewer malpractice claims, less waiting-room incidents, fewer potential EMTALA issues, and faster pick-ups on unstable patients. With today's high legal costs, our RME program’s ability to decrease risk is often as valuable as its ability to increase efficiency.

8. Nurse Retention: Better

   A corollary of RME to rapid care is the more efficient utilization of nurses—eliminating many nurse hours required for compliance with a number of state and healthcare system nurse-to-patient ratios. For example, by seeing, caring for, and discharging a patient directly—eliminating the need to count that patient as being in a bed in the ED—significant nurse hours may be reduced in the ED. Nurses find professional satisfaction with a career in an efficiently run ED, thus lowering hospital recruitment and retention costs.

9. RN-MD Teamwork: Stronger

   CEP America has a formal Physician-Nurse Relationship Program, through which nurses and ED staff are surveyed on a regular basis for feedback on how we can continue to enhance this relationship. We are committed to leading process improvement not only in the emergency department, but throughout the hospital. By developing multidisciplinary process committees, and empowering all members of the ED team, we have been able to significantly improve both department efficiency and service.

10. Hospital Revenue: Higher

    Implementing RME helps to drop the LWBS (left without being seen), increase patient satisfaction, decrease diversion time, and enable numerous other improvements that result in increased patient volume which leads to more referrals and procedures. This, in turn, helps to attract and retain desired specialists, which further enhances the capabilities and the reputation of your hospital.