Drive-thru ED

We’ve seen drive-thru banking, drive-thru restaurants, and even drive-thru churches, but Stanford University Hospital has recently done a full scale pilot of a drive-thru Emergency Department, as might be necessary during a pandemic or bioterrorism event.  Some fifty vehicles carrying “sick models” went to the hospital’s parking garage, where physicians and staff triaged them and sent some on with “prescriptions,” assigned others to cots for observation, and designated some for admission. Compared to the typical ED experience, the drive-thru cases had an average 1.5 hours lower length of stay.    MORE  

Image Credit: Stanford University and The Wall Street Journal