An attending physician float shift for the improvement of physician productivity in a crowded emergency department

作     者：Muhammad Umer Nasim Chintan Mistry Robert Harwood Erik Kulstad Laura Tommaso 

作者机构：Department of Emergency MedicineAdvocate Christ Medical CenterOak LawnILUSA Advocate Lutheran General HospitalPark RidgeIllinois 60068USA 

出 版 物：《World Journal of Emergency Medicine》 (世界急诊医学杂志（英文）)

年 卷 期：2013年第4卷第1期

页      面：10-14页

学科分类：100218[医学-急诊医学] 1002[医学-临床医学] 1010[医学-医学技术（可授医学、理学学位）] 10[医学] 

主　　题：Crowding Physician staffing Boarding patients Float shift 

摘      要：BACKGROUND:Patients backlogged in the emergency department(ED) waiting for an inpatient bed(boarders) continue to require the attention of ED physicians,exacerbating crowding in the *** address this problem,we added a float shift to our winter schedule solely to care for *** sought to quantify the effect of this float shift,hypothesizing greater physician ***:We performed a retrospective observational study in our community hospital ED,measuring the number of new patients seen in each 10-hour shift in the presence or absence of a float shift *** calculated the number of new patients seen per shift for each of the 7 daily shifts,during February(float shift scheduled) and May(float shift unscheduled) of *** then compared the mean number of patients seen per shift in February with ***:Total monthly patient volume was 6 656 for February and 6 775 for May,with the mean daily census being 230 and 219 patients,*** number of new patients seen during each shift was greater in February than in May,with a mean increase of 1.1 patients per shift(with the float shift).Surveying participants about intervention effectiveness showed 92%of residents,but only 65%of attending physicians,in favor of maintaining the float ***:The presence of a float shift physician caring only for boarding patients allows other physicians to maintain and even increase their productivity in our ED,despite the presence of longer throughput times and increased time on diversion.