S. 1974: Addressing Boarding and Crowding in the Emergency Department Act of 2025

This bill, titled the Addressing Boarding and Crowding in the Emergency Department Act of 2025, aims to improve the tracking of hospital capacity and its impact on emergency department operations. Here are the primary provisions of the proposed legislation:

Public Health Data Modernization Grants

The bill allows public health data modernization grants to be used for:

• Tracking hospital bed capacity in real-time across states or regions.
• Monitoring how bed capacity affects emergency department boarding rates, wait times for treatment, and how long emergency medical services personnel wait to offload patients.
• Creating a public-facing dashboard to present this information while ensuring compliance with privacy laws.

Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Pilot Program

The legislation amends existing provisions to include new models aimed at:

• Enhancing emergency care for older adults, focusing on staffing, educational needs, and physical infrastructure improvements in emergency departments.
• Creating specific policies and quality metrics aimed at geriatric patients.
• Improving coordination between emergency departments and post-acute care facilities for better transitions in care.
• Facilitating emergency care for individuals experiencing acute psychiatric crises, including establishing dedicated units and improving transfer processes to post-acute care facilities.

Study on Best Practices for Public Health Data Systems

The bill mandates the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct a study that will:

• Identify best practices for developing and maintaining systems that track hospital capacity accurately and in a timely manner.
• Evaluate how these systems affect emergency department boarding rates, wait times, and the efficiency of emergency medical services.

Results from this study are to be reported to Congress within a year after the bill’s enactment.

Implementation Timeline

The findings from the study mentioned will be crucial for informing future improvements in emergency care and hospital data systems.

Funding and Grants

The bill outlines the provision for awarding grants and establishing cooperative agreements to appropriate entities for expanding and modernizing public health data systems related to hospital capacity and emergency care.

Relevant Companies

None found.