RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Effect of a physician assistant on quality and efficiency metrics in an emergency department
JF Canadian Family Physician
JO Can Fam Physician
FD The College of Family Physicians of Canada
SP e61
OP e67
DO 10.46747/cfp.6702e61
VO 67
IS 2
A1 Michael R.P. de la Roche
A1 Nathalie Dyer
A1 Mark Froats
A1 Allen Bell
A1 Lois McDonald
A1 Craig Bolton
A1 Rob Devins
A1 Ryan Hall
A1 Jonathan Leclerc
A1 Jann Istead
A1 Michele Miron
A1 Martin Badowski
A1 Tracy Steinitz
A1 Nathan King
A1 Priyanka Gogna
YR 2021
UL http://www.cfp.ca/content/67/2/e61.abstract
AB Objective To determine the effect of a physician assistant (PA) working in a secondary care hospital emergency department (ED) on the overall performance of the ED.Design A retrospective review of ED data from April 1, 2017, to September 30, 2017.Setting Belleville General Hospital, a secondary care hospital, ED in Ontario.Participants A physician assistant, 13 emergency physicians, and 7 family physicians.Main outcome measures Overall ED performance was evaluated using metrics from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care: rate of patients who left without being seen, provider initial assessment time at the 90th percentile, and the average provider initial assessment time for all patients over a 6-month period.Results In the PA group, there was a lower average daily left without being seen rate (3.4% vs 5.2%; P < .001), a lower provider initial assessment time at the 90th percentile (3.9 hours vs 4.5 hours; P < .001), a lower average provider initial assessment time (114.83 minutes vs 139.46 minutes; P < .001), and a lower average length of stay (313.85 minutes vs 348.91 minutes; P < .001).Conclusion This study suggests that a PA has a statistically significant positive effect on the overall performance of an ED. Future studies should examine the effect of a PA on quality of care and hospital funding.