Substitute Senate Bill No. 181, known as Public Act No. 24-4, is a legislative act concerning the issue of emergency department crowding in hospitals. The bill mandates that, starting January 1, 2025, and annually until January 1, 2029, each hospital in the state with an emergency department must analyze specific data from the previous calendar year. This data includes the number of patients treated in the emergency department, the number of those patients who were admitted to the hospital, the average time from presentation in the emergency department to hospital admission, and the percentage of patients who were transferred to a bed outside the emergency department more than four hours after an admission order was completed. The analysis aims to develop policies to reduce wait times, improve admission efficiencies, and examine the causes of admission delays.

Furthermore, by March 1, 2025, and annually until March 1, 2029, each hospital that conducts this analysis is required to submit a report to the joint standing committee of the General Assembly with jurisdiction over public health matters. The report should detail the hospital's findings and any recommendations for achieving the goals of reducing wait times, improving admission efficiencies, and understanding the reasons behind admission time delays. The bill does not include any specific insertions or deletions of legal language from current law, as it appears to introduce new requirements rather than amending existing statutes.