Billboards around town displaying emergency room wait times – three for Valley Hospital and three for Deaconess – are part of a promotion for a pledge to have people in front of a health care provider within 30 minutes of checking in. (SR photo: Dan Pelle)

Deaconess and Valley hospitals have launched a visible new ad campaign to tout their emergency room wait times. Billboards – three in Spokane and three in Spokane Valley – post electronic wait times averaged over the last two hours and updated every 15 minutes. “It’s pretty real-time reporting,” said Adam Richards, director of emergency services at Deaconess Hospital. The hospitals are promoting their pledge to get patients from “door-to-provider within 30 minutes.” ER wait times are taking on more importance under health care reform, according to the American Hospital Association. Wait times are a key driver in patient satisfaction, said a November report in the association’s Hospitals & Health Networks publication/Jody Lawrence-Turner, SR. More here.

Question: Should Kootenai Health do this, too?