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Adding more junior residents may worsen emergency department crowding.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Although increasing staff numbers during shifts when emergency department (ED) crowding is severe can help meet patient demand, it remains unclear how different types of added staff, particularly junior residents, may affect crowding. METHODS: To identify associations between types of staff and ED crowding, we conducted a cross-sectional, single-center study in the ED of a large, teaching hospital in Japan between January and December 2012. Patients who visited the ED during the study period were enrolled. We excluded (1) patients previously scheduled to visit the ED, and (2) neonates transferred from other hospitals. During the study period, 27,970 patients were enrolled. Types of staff analyzed were junior (first and second year) residents, senior (third to fifth year) residents, attending (board-certified) physicians, and nurses. A generalized linear model was applied to length of ED stay for all patients as well as admitted and discharged patients to quantify an association with the additional staff. RESULTS: In the model, addition of one attending physician or senior resident was associated with decreased length of ED stay for total patients by 3.88 or 1.64 minutes, respectively (95% CI, 2.20-5.56 and 0.81-2.48 minutes); while additional nursing staff had no association. Surprisingly, however, one additional junior resident was associated with prolonged length of ED stay for total patients by 0.97 minutes (95% CI 0.37-1.57 minutes) and for discharged patients by 1.01 minutes (95% CI 0.45-1.59 minutes). CONCLUSION: Staffing adjustments aimed at alleviating ED crowding should focus on adding more senior staff during peak-volume shifts.

SUBMITTER: Kawano T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4219696 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Adding more junior residents may worsen emergency department crowding.

Kawano Takahisa T Nishiyama Kei K Hayashi Hiroyuki H

PloS one 20141104 11

<h4>Background</h4>Although increasing staff numbers during shifts when emergency department (ED) crowding is severe can help meet patient demand, it remains unclear how different types of added staff, particularly junior residents, may affect crowding.<h4>Methods</h4>To identify associations between types of staff and ED crowding, we conducted a cross-sectional, single-center study in the ED of a large, teaching hospital in Japan between January and December 2012. Patients who visited the ED du ...[more]

PMID: 25369063

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Project description:BackgroundEmergency department crowding is a major global healthcare issue. There is much debate as to the causes of the phenomenon, leading to difficulties in developing successful, targeted solutions.AimThe aim of this systematic review was to critically analyse and summarise the findings of peer-reviewed research studies investigating the causes and consequences of, and solutions to, emergency department crowding.MethodThe Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were followed. A structured search of four databases (Medline, CINAHL, EMBASE and Web of Science) was undertaken to identify peer-reviewed research publications aimed at investigating the causes or consequences of, or solutions to, emergency department crowding, published between January 2000 and June 2018. Two reviewers used validated critical appraisal tools to independently assess the quality of the studies. The study protocol was registered with the International prospective register of systematic reviews (PROSPERO 2017: CRD42017073439).ResultsFrom 4,131 identified studies and 162 full text reviews, 102 studies met the inclusion criteria. The majority were retrospective cohort studies, with the greatest proportion (51%) trialling or modelling potential solutions to emergency department crowding. Fourteen studies examined causes and 40 investigated consequences. Two studies looked at both causes and consequences, and two investigated causes and solutions.ConclusionsThe negative consequences of ED crowding are well established, including poorer patient outcomes and the inability of staff to adhere to guideline-recommended treatment. This review identified a mismatch between causes and solutions. The majority of identified causes related to the number and type of people attending ED and timely discharge from ED, while reported solutions focused on efficient patient flow within the ED. Solutions aimed at the introduction of whole-of-system initiatives to meet timed patient disposition targets, as well as extended hours of primary care, demonstrated promising outcomes. While the review identified increased presentations by the elderly with complex and chronic conditions as an emerging and widespread driver of crowding, more research is required to isolate the precise local factors leading to ED crowding, with system-wide solutions tailored to address identified causes.

Project description:Emergency department (ED) crowding adversely affects multiple facets of high-quality care. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts mandates specific, hospital action plans to reduce ED boarding via a mechanism termed "Code Help." Because implementation appears inconsistent even when hospital conditions should have triggered its activation, we hypothesized that compliance with the Code Help policy would be associated with reduction in ED boarding time and total ED length of stay (LOS) for admitted patients, compared to patients seen when the Code Help policy was not followed.This was a retrospective analysis of data collected from electronic, patient-care, timestamp events and from a prospective Code Help registry for consecutive adult patients admitted from the ED at a single academic center during a 15-month period. For each patient, we determined whether the concurrent hospital status complied with the Code Help policy or violated it at the time of admission decision. We then compared ED boarding time and overall ED LOS for patients cared for during periods of Code Help policy compliance and during periods of Code Help policy violation, both with reference to patients cared for during normal operations.Of 89,587 adult patients who presented to the ED during the study period, 24,017 (26.8%) were admitted to an acute care or critical care bed. Boarding time ranged from zero to 67 hours 30 minutes (median 4 hours 31 minutes). Total ED LOS for admitted patients ranged from 11 minutes to 85 hours 25 minutes (median nine hours). Patients admitted during periods of Code Help policy violation experienced significantly longer boarding times (median 20 minutes longer) and total ED LOS (median 46 minutes longer), compared to patients admitted under normal operations. However, patients admitted during Code Help policy compliance did not experience a significant increase in either metric, compared to normal operations.In this single-center experience, implementation of the Massachusetts Code Help regulation was associated with reduced ED boarding time and ED LOS when the policy was consistently followed, but there were adverse effects on both metrics during violations of the policy.

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Adding more junior residents may worsen emergency department crowding.

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Adding more junior residents may worsen emergency department crowding.

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