The western journal of emergency medicine
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The mean emergency department (ED) length of stay (LOS) is considered a measure of crowding. This paper measures the association between LOS and factors that potentially contribute to LOS measured over consecutive shifts in the ED: shift 1 (7:00 am to 3:00 pm), shift 2 (3:00 pm to 11:00 pm), and shift 3 (11:00 pm to 7:00 am). ⋯ Key factors associated with LOS include hospital occupancy and the number of hospital admissions that originate in the ED. This particularly applies to ED patients who are admitted to the ICU.
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Patient care in the emergency department (ED) is often complicated by the inability to obtain an accurate prior history even when the patient is able to communicate with the ED staff. Personal health records (PHR) can mitigate the impact of such information gaps. This study assesses ED patients' willingness to adopt a PHR and the treating physicians' willingness to use that information. ⋯ The majority of patients and physicians in the ED are willing to adopt PHRs, especially if the hospital participates. ED physicians are more likely to check the PHRs of more severely ill patients. Speed of access is important to ED physicians.
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The objective of this report is to determine physician assistant (PA) productivity in an academic emergency department (ED) and to determine whether shift length or department census impact productivity. ⋯ In the ED, PAs saw 1.16 patients and generated 2.35 RVUs per hour. The length of the shift did not affect productivity. Productivity did not fluctuate significantly with changing departmental volume.