Prince George's County task force advances draft report citing low bed, ED-capacity and EMS delays; hospitals, payers to be consulted

A Prince George's County emergency-department (ED) task force reviewed a near-final draft report on Sept. 29 that finds the county has fewer hospital beds and ED treatment spaces per capita than peer jurisdictions, documents prolonged emergency-medical-services (EMS) transfer times, and identifies gaps in data and funding that limit the ability to set clear remedies.

The draft, presented by Anya McCarra, senior advisor to the Prince George's County Board of Health and the task force lead, lays out findings on health-system capacity, social determinants of health, and hospital- and community-level interventions. McCarra said the report separates findings from action-oriented recommendations and that the draft will be revised after additional hospital and payer input.

The task force's work matters because the report argues ED wait times are a system-wide problem tied to bed availability, primary- and specialty-care access, EMS operations and social needs — not solely ED management. The county intends to use the task force findings to inform recommendations to state and local decision-makers and to coordinate follow-up meetings with hospitals and payers.

McCarra summarized the report's data points and limitations. She said Maryland ranks among the worst states for ED wait times and the draft includes a six‑month review (September 2024–April 2025) of EMS turnaround times divided into 0–35 minutes, over 35 minutes, and over 60 minutes. She said the charted examples showed that in September 2024 three Maryland hospitals had EMS turnaround times exceeding 60 minutes and two of those were in Prince George's County; in October 2024 seven hospitals exceeded 60 minutes and three were in the county.

McCarra described county capacity figures that the task force used to justify concerns: Prince George's County has about 0.8 licensed hospital beds per 1,000 residents (compared with Montgomery County's 1.4 and Baltimore City's 6.8); the county has 2.28 ED treatment spaces per 10,000 residents versus the Maryland average of 3.58 and Baltimore City's 11.26. She also reported a special HSCRC (Health Services Cost Review Commission) data pull showing 12 non‑county hospitals draw more than 5% of their volume from Prince George's County; for example, the draft shows Adventist White Oak Medical Center receives about 48.5% of its volume from county residents (data excluded District of Columbia and Virginia flows, which undercounts cross‑jurisdiction utilization).

Hospital and urgent-care capacity featured in the discussion. Bill Miller, CEO of CRH Healthcare (which operates Patriot Urgent Care locations), cautioned the task force to analyze data that spans the COVID years carefully: “I'd be very careful with data that covers years covering COVID years. Those years ... distort everything.” Miller pressed the group to identify economic drivers — reimbursement rates and payer incentives — behind shortages of primary care and urgent-care sites and offered to meet with staff to supply operator perspectives and data.

Community member and task force member Jeffrey Cooper emphasized social determinants of health in the county's ED use: “The ... long emergency wait times cannot be solved by hospitals alone. It's rooted in systematic inequities, housing instability, food insecurity, limited transportation, and lack of accessible primary care.” Cooper urged the report to include concrete county- and hospital-level actions to tie accountability to equity outcomes and to invest in local hiring and training.

Several task force members pressed for more engagement with hospitals and payers. McCarra said she had requested hospital responses to a questionnaire and asked for a separate meeting with hospital leadership. Members asked the county to invite payer representatives (CareFirst was discussed) and to incorporate analysis of reimbursement and the effect of upcoming Medicaid changes; County representative Martinez volunteered to connect McCarra with contacts on Medicaid impacts.

Participants also discussed alternative EMS destinations, telehealth and mobile integrated healthcare as options to divert low‑acuity patients from ED transport. McCarra noted that the Dyer Center had previously served as an alternate destination but has closed, and that statewide information about alternate EMS destinations is not readily shareable without local consent. She also said the state‑level Emergency Department Wait Time Reduction Commission (HSCRC) will publish a preliminary report on Nov. 1 and a final report on June 1, 2026; the task force is aligning its timeline to incorporate HSCRC outputs.

The group identified evidence and analysis gaps that must be filled before the final draft: reconciled patient-volume figures (McCarra noted an unexplained jump from about 68,000 visits in 2022 to about 180,000 in 2023 in one dataset), hospital staffing and occupancy details, cross‑jurisdiction patient flows that include Washington, D.C. and Virginia, and more granular payer reimbursement data. McCarra asked hospitals to provide direct input on staffing, how HSCRC revenue models affect local hospitals, and any certificate‑of‑need filings relevant to capacity.

On procedural items, the task force moved to adopt minutes from the July 28 meeting. Ms. Eubanks (staff) moved to adopt the minutes and Bill Miller seconded; the chair noted the motion was moved and seconded and the group proceeded (voice vote or consensus; no roll call tally recorded in the transcript). The task force scheduled a follow-up meeting with hospital representatives and set the next full task force meeting for Oct. 6 at 6 p.m.

The draft report will be circulated for written comments once it incorporates additional hospital and state data. McCarra said she will convene smaller follow‑ups (hospital leaders, payer contacts, and county staff) and asked task force members to submit written input as soon as possible to inform final recommendations.

Votes at a glance: The only formal action recorded on the transcript was adoption of minutes from the July 28 meeting (motion moved by Ms. Eubanks; seconded by Bill Miller; outcome recorded as moved and seconded with no roll-call tally in the transcript).

The task force will continue data collection and analysis and aim to finalize recommendations after the HSCRC preliminary release and after hospital and payer consultations are completed.