Prevent ECAT Breaches before they happen.
Your EHR will report your ECAT measures. CareEdge for ECAT uses AI Agents to help you change them.
Low Cost | Low Lift
What is CareEdge for ECAT?
CareEdge for ECAT is a Care Logistics solution that uses AI Agents to help hospital emergency departments improve their performance on the CMS Emergency Care Access and Timeliness (ECAT) measure.
It shows leaders where they stand, identifies the preventable causes of breaches and directs action to prevent them, using the ED’s own EHR data.
CareEdge for ECAT at a glance…
What it does: helps EDs prevent ECAT breaches, not just report them.
How it works: a performance AI Agent analyzes historical data, and a real-time AI Agent monitors every patient in the ED.
What it needs: the ED’s own EHR data, with no other Care Logistics system.
Who it serves: ED and hospital leaders accountable for ECAT performance.
What is the CMS ECAT measure?
The CMS ECAT measure, Emergency Care Access and Timeliness, counts the share of ED visits in which a patient experiences at least one of four access or timeliness breaches:
60 min
Waits more than 60 minutes to be placed in a treatment space
LWOTS
Leaves without being evaluated
4 hrs
Is admitted but does not leave the ED within 4 hours of the decision to admit
8 hrs
Stays in the ED longer than 8 hours
Scores will be publicly displayed, and each ED will be compared with EDs of similar volume.
When does ECAT reporting start?
ECAT reporting starts on a voluntary basis on January 1, 2027, becomes mandatory in 2028 and affects 2030 payment determination.
When does the ECAT boarding clock start?
The ECAT boarding clock starts at the decision to admit, not at arrival. An admitted patient who does not leave the ED within 4 hours of the decision to admit counts against the ED’s ECAT score.
Why won’t better charting improve an ECAT score?
Better charting alone will not improve an ECAT score because the official score is reported months after the shifts that produced it, and the delays it counts are patient flow problems. Care Logistics has improved patient flow and throughput in hospitals for decades. Through proprietary CareEdge by Care Logistics technology, CareEdge for ECAT applies that operational expertise to the measure your board and your community will see.
Tier 1
What does ECAT Performance include?
ECAT Performance includes a performance AI Agent that turns the ED’s historical data into prevention.
Track Performance
Track the ECAT rate and all four thresholds for today and the last 7, 30 and 90 days, measured against your targets.
Report with Confidence
Each period is marked “Ready” or “At-Risk”, with every missing field and its source system named.
Find Root Causes
See when each type of breach occurs, hour by hour, and the preventable root causes behind it.
Brief Leadership
Receive a drafted leadership summary for the operating review or board report.
Act on recommendations
Act on specific staffing, bed and process recommendations that target breaches before they happen.
Alert ED Leaders
Get trend and data-quality alerts sent to ED leaders.
Tier 2
What does ECAT Performance + Realtime add?
ECAT Performance + Realtime adds a real-time AI Agent that monitors and manages the measures that impact your ECAT score for every patient in the ED.
Recommends the next action: For each at-risk patient, it recommends the action that matters most for meeting their required metrics: placement, a disposition decision, a bed request or departure.
Routes every warning: Warnings go to the right owner, from charge nurse to manager to director, and boarding warnings go to bed management. Owners acknowledge, resolve or escalate each warning, and if no one responds within a set time, the warning moves up a level. Escalation timelines are configurable.
How do ECAT Performance and ECAT Performance + Realtime compare?
ECAT Performance uses historical data to show when and why breaches occur, while ECAT Performance + Realtime adds real-time monitoring and escalation for every patient in the ED.
Tier 1ECAT Performance |
Tier 2ECAT Performance + RealtimeEverything in Tier 1, plus real-time monitoring | |
|---|---|---|
| AI Agent | Performance AI Agent | Performance AI Agent plus a real-time AI Agent |
| Data | The ED’s historical EHR data | The ED’s historical and current EHR data |
| Focus | When and why breaches occur, and how to prevent them | Every patient in the ED, before, at and past each limit |
| Alerts go to | ED leaders | ED leaders, charge nurse, manager and director; bed management for boarding |
| Reporting support | “Ready” or “At-Risk” status and leadership summaries | Everything in Tier 1 |
| Other Care Logistics systems needed | None | None |
Data and systems
Works with the data and systems you already have
What data does CareEdge for ECAT need?
CareEdge for ECAT needs only the hospital’s ED and EHR data. It needs no other Care Logistics system. Hospitals submit ECAT data to CMS, directly or through their EHR or data submission vendor, but CareEdge for ECAT helps ensure what you file is complete and that the number is moving the right way. The performance agent never fills in a time the EHR did not send.
Room to Grow: Expanding Success Throughout the Entire System
How does Care Logistics address the causes of ED boarding outside the ED?
Care Logistics addresses the causes of ED boarding outside the ED through the full Care Logistics Healthcare Operating System, which extends these improvements and operational efficiency across the system, providing real-time management hospital-wide. Boarding is often the hardest threshold to move because many of its causes sit outside the ED.
It identifies the exact fix: the specific clean bed, the assigned housekeeper or transporter, and the time.
Working alongside key roles in your operating model, AI Agents streamline patient placement and inpatient unit flow to resolve the discharge and bed assignment delays that keep patients waiting in the ED. An additional AI Agent organizes pending test and imaging orders. Each layer builds on the one before it.
Frequently Asked Questions about CareEdge for ECAT
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Hospitals still submit ECAT data to CMS, directly or through their EHR or data submission vendor. CareEdge for ECAT helps ensure what you file is complete and that the number is moving the right way.
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Yes. ECAT scores will be publicly displayed, and each ED will be compared with EDs of similar volume.
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No. The performance agent never fills in a time the EHR did not send. It marks each period “Ready” or “At-Risk” and names every missing field and its source system.
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CareEdge for ECAT warnings go to the right owner, from charge nurse to manager to director, and boarding warnings go to bed management. Trend and data-quality alerts go to ED leaders.
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No. CareEdge for ECAT escalation timelines are configurable.
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Every Care Logistics article on ECAT is collected HERE.
About Care Logistics
Who is Care Logistics?
Health system leaders are stuck in an endless cycle of operational fires: capacity crunches, throughput bottlenecks, and margins that never seem to add up. Care Logistics breaks that cycle.
We give health systems a proven operational model, powered by AI-driven technology, that goes beyond visibility; it actively removes barriers and bottlenecks. And when problems emerge, leaders don’t just see them coming; they get recommended actions to address them before they become crises.
The results are real: capacity freed up without a single new bed, bottlenecks eliminated, and positive margins. For our clients, that adds up to an average of $30 million in financial impact, money that goes back into the mission of patient care.
Care Logistics doesn’t just give you a dashboard. We give you the model, the tools, and the insights to run a fundamentally better hospital.