Quick triage of patients who arrive at the Emergency Department isn't just important for patient safety. It makes hospitals a lot more popular with their consumers, as one hospital has found.

The emergency department at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Plano launched a policy called the 30-Minute Promise in October 2009, pledging to treat patients within a half-hour of arrival. The result: the hospital’s patient satisfaction scores in the Emergency Department rising above the 90th percentile of hospitals nationwide.