Emergency Care Partners Urges Hospitals to Prepare Now for New CMS Emergency Department Measures
As CMS prepares to publicly report ER wait times, boarding delays, and other access measures, ECP and its network of
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As CMS prepares to publicly report ER wait times, boarding delays, and other access measures, ECP and its network of partner physician groups say hospitals have roughly a year to get ahead of the numbers.
PENSACOLA, FL / ACCESS Newswire / October 12, 2026 / Emergency Care Partners (ECP), a physician-owned partnership of independent emergency medicine groups, is positioning itself and its network of partner physician groups as a resource for hospitals preparing for sweeping new federal reporting requirements on emergency department (ED) performance. Beginning in 2027, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will begin collecting four new ED access and timeliness measures – known as the ECAT metrics – that will be searchable and benchmarked against peer hospitals on Medicare’s Care Compare website starting in 2028, with payment penalties tied to performance beginning in 2030.
The four ECAT thresholds include wait times of more than one hour from arrival to treatment room placement; boarding of admitted patients for more than four hours after an admission decision is made; an overall ED length of stay exceeding eight hours for discharged patients; and patients who leave before being evaluated by a clinician. Once reporting begins, this data will be publicly searchable, giving patients, referring physicians, competing hospitals, and even payers a new lens into ED performance.
The trend lines make early preparation important. According to a 2025 Yale study published in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) Health Forum, which analyzed nearly 149 million ED visits, the share of visits involving an access failure rose from 18.5% in 2017 to 28.7% in 2024, with prolonged stays nearly doubling and boarding delays more than doubling over the same period.
“Hospitals have about a year to get their arms around this before their numbers are public and compared with every other ED in their market,” said Jessica Ogden, Director of Commercial Strategy at Emergency Care Partners. “The hospitals that do well will be the ones that treat these metrics as part of daily operations, not a compliance deadline. That’s how our partner physician groups already run their departments, and we want to help more hospitals get there.”
ECP’s partner groups support throughput through several operational levers. One is ED-led observation units with 24/7 medical direction and specialist protocols, a structure that keeps observation-status patients from counting toward two of the four ECAT measures: extended boarding and prolonged length of stay. The partner groups are paired with real-time analytics, physician-led operational oversight, and ongoing process-improvement work. Across its partner hospitals, ECP reports average door-to-provider times under 15 minutes, a left-without-being-seen rate under 1.5%, overall ED length of stay under 150 minutes, boarding under 60 minutes from admit decision to departure, and 98% physician partner retention.
“I want to implore hospitals to make sure that you truly have a partner in your emergency department,” said Mark Laperouse, MD, President of Franciscan Emergency Physicians, an ECP group. “A partner that’s not going to point fingers at the administration for lack of resources, a partner that’s going to say, ‘How can we do this together?’ That’s ECP.“
Hospitals can request a complimentary ECAT readiness assessment at ecp.net/frontdoor.
About Emergency Care Partners
Emergency Care Partners (ECP) is a physician-owned partnership of independent emergency medicine groups united by a commitment to clinical and operational excellence. Founded in 2018, ECP has grown into a multi-regional platform through partnerships with groups including Progressive Emergency Physicians, Ascension Emergency Physicians, Illinois Emergency Medicine Specialists, Eastern Carolina Emergency Physicians, Missouri Physician Partners, Lake Emergency Partners, Canyon State Emergency Partners, and Ohio Emergency Medicine Services, among others. By pairing national infrastructure – recruiting, credentialing, revenue cycle management, compliance, and real-time clinical analytics – with local clinical autonomy and physician ownership, ECP helps hospitals remain a trusted pillar of local health while helping emergency medicine groups thrive. Learn more at ecp.net.
Jessica Ogden, Director of Commercial Strategy
Jessica.ogden@ecp.net
(850) 449-3994
SOURCE: Emergency Care Partners (ECP)
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire
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