Resident Productivity in the Emergency Department After Implementation of an Automated Patient Assignment System; a Brief Report

Introduction: The clinical diversity of patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) allows emergency medicine (EM) and non-EM residents to sharpen their clinical skills. In most EDs, residents self-assign patients at their discretion. Our institution transitioned from a self-assignment-system to an automated-system, after which we sought to determine the productivity of our non-EM residents compared to the previous system. Methods: In this retrospective cross-sectional study, resident productivity was measured as number of patient visits per hour and per 8.5-hour shift before and after the implementation of an automated patient assignment system in emergency department. The automated-system assigns one patient at the start of the shift, another 30 minutes later, and one patient every hour thereafter, throughout the shift. Results: 28 residents performed 406 total shifts prior to implementation and 14 residents performed 252 total shifts post-implementation. The average number of patient visits per hour significantly increased from 0.52 +/- 0.18 (95% CI 0.45-0.59, IQR 0.43-0.60) to 0.82 +/- 0.11 (95% CI 0.75-0.88, IQR 0.74-0.89) after implementation of our assignment system (p<0.00001; figure 1). Additionally, the average number of patient visits per 8.5-hour shift significantly increased from 4.46 +/- 1.53 (CI 3.86-5.05, IQR 3.66-5.08) to 6.52 +/- 0.86 (CI 6.02-7.02, IQR 5.90-7.09) after the implementation of our system (p<0.00001; figure 1). Conclusion: These findings warrant further evaluation of the impact of patient assignment systems on trainee education.