Clinical trial NCT02703701: Role of Provider-at-Triage on ED Efficiency and Quality of Care
Official title: Effects of Provider-at-Triage on Emergency Department Efficiency, Information Delivery and Patient Satisfaction
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: Patient Satisfaction With Emergency Department Efficiency
Keywords: Patient Satisfaction
Emergency Department efficiency
Lead sponsor: University of Florida
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2016-03-09
Enrollment: 439
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 110
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Observational model: CASE_CONTROL
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Individuals receiving care from the Emergency Department between 10am-3pm on days a physician is (Monday-Wednesday) and is not (Thursday-Sunday) assigned to triage.

Brief summary: The United States spends over $8,000 per capita annually on health care and its health care system is more expensive than other developed countries. Even with high per capita costs and a high proportion of physician specialists, the US lags in health care performance from patients' perspectives.

The hospital emergency department (ED) is often the portal of entry for patients seeking health care services and is therefore an ideal setting for initiatives to improve efficiency of care delivery and patient satisfaction. Reduction in wait times, enhanced information delivery and ED staff service quality all have a positive influence on patient perception of health care quality and satisfaction.

Prior studies have attempted to increase patient satisfaction by improving staff communication and courtesy, implementing a patient satisfaction team in triage, and delivering information to patients in a timely manner. Another strategy to increase the efficiency of ED operations is adding a physician to triage to perform brief medical screenings and initiate necessary patient testing and treatment. This contrasts to usual practice in which physicians evaluate patients only following registration and nurse assessment of illness or injury severity.

Detailed description: This study will assess the impact of early patient assessment by a physician at Emergency Department (ED) triage on patient perception of information delivery, overall patient satisfaction and ED efficiency. ED efficiency will be assessed by ED length of patient stay, ED left-without-being-seen and ED left during treatment rates.

Participants who decide to take part in this study, will be asked questions by research staff, who will document responses on a secure iPAD device. The survey will ask participants how they feel about their health condition, the emergency department wait, the care they received in the emergency department and how satisfied the participant was with the care received.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

Participants are eligible to participate in the study if they are:

* English speaking
* Without hemodynamic or respiratory compromise
* Do not have a nurse-assigned triage severity score of Emergency Severity Index 1 (most severe illness or injury score).

Exclusion Criteria:

Participants will be excluded if they are:

* Unwilling or unable to sign an informed consent
* In police custody
* Too ill to participate in study.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Patient Satisfaction
timeFrame: 60 minutes after Emergency Department triage
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Emergency Department efficiency
timeFrame: 24 hours after ED triage in minutes
measure: Left without being seen rate
timeFrame: 12 hours after ED triage in minutes
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Gainesville
country: United States
facility: UF Health
state: Florida
Study officials:
affiliation: Univeristy of Florida
name: Brandon Allen, MD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: