Work of the Center: Urgent Matters

Urgent Matters, a national initiative funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is dedicated to finding, developing and delivering strategies to improve patient flow and reduce emergency department (ED) crowding. Urgent Matters is a nationally recognized program and serves as a clearinghouse of best practices gathered from its research activities. Urgent Matters now collaborates with industry leaders to develop ED performance measures and share field-tested initiatives, and advises national and state organizations, health systems, and the federal government.

Urgent Matters began as a ten-hospital collaborative Learning Network that provided breakthrough research on patient flow measurement and improvement. As part of the Learning Network, hospitals implemented rigorous performance measures, assessed current processes, and used techniques of rapid cycle change to improve ED throughput and output. Key lessons from the first Learning Network can be found in Bursting at the Seams: Improving Patient Flow. Urgent Matters is now working with the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and Health Research and Educational Trust (HRET), an affiliate of the American Hospital Association, on Learning Network II to push this work to the next level.

The Center is the recipient of an AHRQ ACTION grant, which allows special status as an AHRQ grantee for quality improvement initiatives, with a focus on community health centers, safety-net hospitals, and emergency care. The Center is also supported by other grant funding from the AHRQ and the Department of Homeland Security.