TY - GEN
T1 - Physician interruptions and workload during emergency department shifts
AU - El-Sherif, Nibras
AU - Hawthorne, Hunter J.
AU - Forsyth, Katherine L.
AU - Abdelrahman, Amro
AU - Hallbeck, Susan M.
AU - Blocker, Renaldo C.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright 2017 by Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - Interruptions in the Emergency Department (ED) are moderately studied in regard to their impact on physicians' workload. This study captured interruptions characteristics and measures of workload. Twenty-eight ED physicians were followed during their shifts; interruptions they faced were captured using a validated tablet PC-based tool. At the mid and end of their shift, providers completed a NASA-Task Load Index (TLX) questionnaire and a reaction time task. Descriptive statistics and ANOVA were used to identify relationships between physicians' interruptions and workload. A total of 2355 interruptions were identified (M =84.1, SD =14.5). The NASA-TLX results showed increase in physicians' responses for all subscales from mid to end-shifts. Reaction time was higher at end-shift with mean difference of 33.75ms, 95% CI [20.35, 47.13], p < 0.001. At end-shift, there was a statistically significant positive correlation between reaction time and all NASA-TLX subscales. Interruption duration rather than frequency correlated positively with NASA-TLX scores. High/critical interruptions were the least frequent but had longer duration and greater impact on workload. This study provided a unique examination of interruptions over an entire provider shift and identified interruptions as potential causes of increased workload for ED physicians.
AB - Interruptions in the Emergency Department (ED) are moderately studied in regard to their impact on physicians' workload. This study captured interruptions characteristics and measures of workload. Twenty-eight ED physicians were followed during their shifts; interruptions they faced were captured using a validated tablet PC-based tool. At the mid and end of their shift, providers completed a NASA-Task Load Index (TLX) questionnaire and a reaction time task. Descriptive statistics and ANOVA were used to identify relationships between physicians' interruptions and workload. A total of 2355 interruptions were identified (M =84.1, SD =14.5). The NASA-TLX results showed increase in physicians' responses for all subscales from mid to end-shifts. Reaction time was higher at end-shift with mean difference of 33.75ms, 95% CI [20.35, 47.13], p < 0.001. At end-shift, there was a statistically significant positive correlation between reaction time and all NASA-TLX subscales. Interruption duration rather than frequency correlated positively with NASA-TLX scores. High/critical interruptions were the least frequent but had longer duration and greater impact on workload. This study provided a unique examination of interruptions over an entire provider shift and identified interruptions as potential causes of increased workload for ED physicians.
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U2 - 10.1177/1541931213601648
DO - 10.1177/1541931213601648
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85042483902
T3 - Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
SP - 649
EP - 652
BT - Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 2017 International Annual Meeting, HFES 2017
PB - Human Factors an Ergonomics Society Inc.
T2 - Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 2017 International Annual Meeting, HFES 2017
Y2 - 9 October 2017 through 13 October 2017
ER -