Reducing Emergency Department Wait Times with Point-of-Care CBC Testing

Emergency departments today are at a breaking point. With patient volumes climbing and staff stretched thin, long wait times have become the norm rather than the exception. Among the many bottlenecks in ED workflows, delays in laboratory test results, especially Complete Blood Counts (CBCs), can significantly slow down triage and treatment decisions.

But what if this critical step could be completed in under five minutes, right at the patient’s side? Enter point-of-care CBC testing: a powerful tool that’s redefining diagnostic speed and emergency care efficiency.

Why Emergency Department Overcrowding Persists

Emergency departments (EDs) across the globe are under increasing strain. In the United States alone, the average ED wait time to see a physician reached 162 minutes in 2022, up significantly from pre-pandemic years (Business Insider). Crowding is no longer just a patient experience issue, it has become a systemic threat to hospital performance, patient outcomes, and staff morale.

Multiple studies have drawn a straight line between ED overcrowding and increased mortality, treatment delays, and reduced care quality. Contributing factors include staffing shortages, limited inpatient bed availability, and, critically, delays in laboratory diagnostics, which are essential for triaging and diagnosing patients.

The Role of Laboratory Diagnostics in ED Throughput

A cornerstone of emergency medicine is the rapid triage of patients. For those presenting with fever, chest pain, unexplained fatigue, or signs of infection, one of the most common and clinically informative diagnostic tools is the CBC.

However, traditional CBC testing typically requires blood to be drawn and sent to a central lab, where turnaround times can range from 45 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the hospital’s workflow and backlog. When even basic bloodwork is delayed, so too is diagnosis, admission, or discharge.

This bottleneck often leads to prolonged ED stays, bed congestion, and a higher risk of “left without being seen” (LWBS) incidents. Exact numbers vary, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stating that over 2% of ED patients leave before being seen, and some studies finding these to be 8.77% of ED visitors (Acta Biomed).

Point-of-Care Testing: A Strategic Solution

Point-of-care (POC) testing has emerged as a practical solution to reduce diagnostic delays. Unlike centralized labs, POC devices enable rapid test results directly at or near the patient’s bedside, often within minutes. In the context of the emergency department, this speed can dramatically improve decision-making and reduce bottlenecks.

A randomized controlled study published in The American Journal of Emergency Medicine showed that implementing POC testing for CBC and electrolytes reduced the median time to medical decision-making by nearly 100 minutes and shortened the total ED length of stay by over 150 minutes (AJEM).

This translates not only into improved patient outcomes but also into more efficient use of clinical staff and physical space, both of which are increasingly scarce resources.

POC CBC Designed for the Emergency Environment

The HemoScreen CBC analyzer is uniquely designed for POC use in high-acuity settings like the emergency department. Unlike traditional lab analyzers, HemoScreen requires no manual sample preparation and provides lab-accurate, 5-part differential CBC results in just five minutes.

Key features that make it ideal for emergency settings include:

• Ease of Use: Designed for non-lab personnel with minimal training.
• Portability: Small, benchtop unit ideal for space-constrained ED bays or triage areas.
• Rapid Time to Result: Delivers accurate results in under 5 minutes from a single drop of blood.
• FDA-Cleared for POC use: Meets strict regulatory standards for clinical use, including recent clearance for direct-from-capillary sampling, further streamlining workflow.

In practice, HemoScreen can be used at triage, at the bedside, or even during ambulance intake to guide urgent care decisions. This decentralization of diagnostics empowers frontline staff with information they can act on immediately.

Clinical Impact: Beyond the Numbers

The use of HemoScreen and similar POC analyzers is both a technological upgrade and a clinical enabler. Consider a few practical applications:

• Sepsis Triage: For patients with suspected sepsis, minutes can mean the difference between survival and deterioration. A quick CBC can identify elevated white cell count and other critical indicators for early intervention (more info on CBC sepsis detection).
• Chest Pain Assessment: A CBC can provide insight into potential hematologic or inflammatory causes of chest pain, helping differentiate between cardiac and non-cardiac causes.
• Pediatric Fevers: In pediatric emergency rooms, CBC testing can help rule out serious infections without requiring venous draws or long waits, especially beneficial for uncooperative or anxious children.

Each of these scenarios, when accelerated by rapid CBC testing, contributes to faster treatment and better outcomes, exactly the kind of efficiency the modern ED desperately needs.

Economic and Operational Benefits

Reducing emergency department wait times isn’t just a clinical goal—it’s an economic necessity. Overcrowded EDs often lead to higher operational costs due to:

• Increased staff overtime
• Delayed bed turnover
• Patient diversion or ambulance rerouting
• Lost revenue from LWBS incidents

A report from the Journal of Healthcare Management estimates that every patient who leaves the ED without being seen costs hospitals between $500 and $1,000 in lost revenue. For busy urban hospitals, this can translate into millions annually.

By integrating a device like HemoScreen to accelerate discharge decisions (even by a small percentage), EDs can yield substantial ROI while also improving patient satisfaction scores, which are increasingly tied to reimbursement.

The Road Ahead for Emergency Diagnostics

As EDs continue to face pressures from rising patient volumes and workforce shortages, the importance of smarter workflows and faster diagnostics cannot be overstated. Point-of-care CBC testing is not just a convenience, it is an operational necessity for forward-thinking institutions.

PixCell Medical’s HemoScreen aligns perfectly with the goals of next-generation emergency care: speed, accuracy, usability, and reliability. By reducing the diagnostic time from hours to minutes, clinicians can reclaim critical time, improve throughput, and—most importantly—deliver better care, faster.

Conclusion

Emergency departments are on the front lines of healthcare, and they need front-line tools. As the demand for emergency services grows, so too must our ability to diagnose quickly and accurately. POC technologies like HemoScreen offer a rare opportunity to reduce wait times, improve efficiency, and enhance patient outcomes simultaneously.

For hospitals looking to modernize their emergency departments and combat systemic inefficiencies, investing in rapid CBC analyzers may be one of the most cost-effective and impactful decisions they make.

Whether you’re a healthcare professional seeking the best for your patients or a decision-maker in a medical facility, embracing advanced CBC analyzers like HemoScreen can make a tangible difference. Explore the clinical evidence or contact us today to learn more.

(*) Please note: training must be defined by local, state and federal regulations. In the USA, training is defined for CLIA moderate complexity devices.