Brazosport Facts, July 22, 2007 LAKE JACKSON - Brazosport Regional Health System officials are hoping a new screening process will dramatically cut wait times for patients walking into the emergency room.  Brazosport Regional Health System's Emergency Services Department will implement the new medical screening process beginning Aug. 1. It will put each patient into one of three classifications based on the severity of the person's condition, moving more urgent cases to the front of the line. Hospital officials hope the new system addresses what is one of the biggest complaints of patients, said the hospital's president and CEO, Dan Buche. Brazosport Regional's emergency room has an average wait time of two hours, 15 minutes, he said. Overcrowding in emergency rooms is a growing problem across the country, said Scott Briner, Brazosport Regional's director of marketing. The number of patients seen in emergency rooms grew 18 percent between 1994 and 2004, and the national average wait time is about three hours, Briner said. The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and Bayshore Medical Center in Pasadena are among other facilities in the region using the classification system.