TY - JOUR
T1 - The durability of operational improvements with rotational patient assignment
AU - Traub, Stephen J.
AU - Saghafian, Soroush
AU - Bartley, Adam C.
AU - Buras, Matthew R.
AU - Stewart, Christopher F.
AU - Kruse, Brian T.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2018/8
Y1 - 2018/8
N2 - Introduction: Previous work has suggested that Emergency Department rotational patient assignment (a system in which patients are algorithmically assigned to physicians) is associated with immediate (first-year) improvements in operational metrics. We sought to determine if these improvements persisted over a longer follow-up period. Methods: Single-site, retrospective analysis focused on years 2–4 post-implementation (follow-up) of a rotational patient assignment system. We compared operational data for these years with previously published data from the last year of physician self-assignment and the first year of rotational patient assignment. We report data for patient characteristics, departmental characteristics and facility characteristics, as well as outcomes of length of stay (LOS), arrival to provider time (APT), and rate of patients who left before being seen (LBBS). Results: There were 140,673 patient visits during the five year period; 138,501 (98.7%) were eligible for analysis. LOS, APT, and LBBS during follow-up remained improved vs. physician self-assignment, with improvements similar to those noted in the first year of implementation. Compared with the last year of physician self-assignment, approximate yearly average improvements during follow-up were a decrease in median LOS of 18 min (8% improvement), a decrease in median APT of 21 min (54% improvement), and a decrease in LBBS of 0.69% (72% improvement). Conclusion: In a single facility study, rotational patient assignment was associated with sustained operational improvements several years after implementation. These findings provide further evidence that rotational patient assignment is a viable strategy in front-end process redesign.
AB - Introduction: Previous work has suggested that Emergency Department rotational patient assignment (a system in which patients are algorithmically assigned to physicians) is associated with immediate (first-year) improvements in operational metrics. We sought to determine if these improvements persisted over a longer follow-up period. Methods: Single-site, retrospective analysis focused on years 2–4 post-implementation (follow-up) of a rotational patient assignment system. We compared operational data for these years with previously published data from the last year of physician self-assignment and the first year of rotational patient assignment. We report data for patient characteristics, departmental characteristics and facility characteristics, as well as outcomes of length of stay (LOS), arrival to provider time (APT), and rate of patients who left before being seen (LBBS). Results: There were 140,673 patient visits during the five year period; 138,501 (98.7%) were eligible for analysis. LOS, APT, and LBBS during follow-up remained improved vs. physician self-assignment, with improvements similar to those noted in the first year of implementation. Compared with the last year of physician self-assignment, approximate yearly average improvements during follow-up were a decrease in median LOS of 18 min (8% improvement), a decrease in median APT of 21 min (54% improvement), and a decrease in LBBS of 0.69% (72% improvement). Conclusion: In a single facility study, rotational patient assignment was associated with sustained operational improvements several years after implementation. These findings provide further evidence that rotational patient assignment is a viable strategy in front-end process redesign.
KW - Length of stay
KW - Rotational patient assignment
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ajem.2017.12.045
DO - 10.1016/j.ajem.2017.12.045
M3 - Article
C2 - 29331271
AN - SCOPUS:85040217451
SN - 0735-6757
VL - 36
SP - 1367
EP - 1371
JO - American Journal of Emergency Medicine
JF - American Journal of Emergency Medicine
IS - 8
ER -