Driving down the highway, you usually see billboards advertising used cars, FM radio, or beer. But now in some places across America, hospitals are getting in the act- posting how long their emergency room wait times are, on billboards, right by the side of the road.

The idea behind the billboards is that people with non-life threatening conditions will be able to see how long the wait is at their local ER, and decide which hospital they should drive towards- or if they should even go at all. Hospitals who are employing this modern advertising technique assured us that all patients in life or death situations will always jump to the front of the line, no matter what the billboard or iPhone app says.

In some parts of the country, like South Florida, potential patients are able to use the billboards to do some serious comparison shopping- because they are everywhere. Dr. Kenneth Scheppke from Florida’s JFK Medical Center explained, “we’ve all heard stories of patients waiting ungodly times in emergency departments in other areas, and we didn’t want to be one of those hospitals. We wanted to be a center of excellence, so we started looking at ways to get our patients rapidly through the system.” Dr. Scheppke continued, explaining that when the hospital posts ER wait times, “it’s far safer for [patients], and we can provide much better care.”

Still, some doctors have diagnosed these advertisements as being bad for your health. Dr. Michael Gerardi from the American College of Emergency Physicians recently expressed his concern. “What we’re afraid of is that if you post times like that, it’s going to dissuade or discourage people to go to a good hospital and bypass it for another hospital maybe 20-30 minutes away- and that can mean life or death,” said Dr. Gerardi. “It could mean being in a wheelchair after your stroke, to walking out of the hospital. I can’t emphasize enough that you cannot triage yourself or self-determine where you’re going.” He urges patients to, “go to the nearest hospital you trust, and get seen.”

There are no statistics available about how many hospitals are posting their ER wait times right now. But, in 2008 ER visits hit an all time high with more than 123 million, so hospitals nationwide will likely continue to use modern technology to try and lessen the burden on their emergency room physicians.