LO55: A pilot evaluation of medical scribes in a Canadian emergency department

Impact of scribes on performance indicators in the emergency department.

OBJECTIVES The objective was to quantify the effect of scribes on three measures of emergency physician (EP) productivity in an adult emergency department (ED). METHODS For this retrospective study, 243 clinical shifts (of either 10 or 12 hours) worked by 13 EPs during an 18-month period were selected for evaluation. Payroll data sheets were examined to determine whether these shifts were cov...

Hurried Psychiatric Labelling: A Preventable Medical Error in an Emergency Department

Meeting Canadian emergency department triage and acuity scale benchmarks in a rural emergency department.

INTRODUCTION The Canadian Emergency Department Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS) was implemented in 1999. The CTAS aims to more accurately define patients' needs for timely care and provide operating objectives to standardize this care. These objectives are not being met across Ontario. The purpose of this study was to determine if the CTAS benchmarks were being met at a rural emergency department...

Trends in use in a Canadian pediatric emergency department.

INTRODUCTION Emergency department (ED) crowding is a significant problem in Canada and has been associated with decreased quality of care in general and pediatric emergency departments (PEDs). Although boarding of admitted patients in the ED is the main contributor to adult ED overcrowding, factors involved in PED crowding may be different. The objective of this study was to report the trend in...

Validity of the emergency severity index in predicting patient outcomes in a major emergency department

Background and Purpose: The emergency severity index (ESI) triage system has been recommended by the Ministry of Health to classify patients at emergency departments. This study aimed to assess the validity of ESI system (version 4) in the emergency department of a teaching hospital. Outcome measures were hospitalization, emergency department (ED) length of stay, resource consumption, in-hos...