• Alexander K Leung, Gaurav Puri, Bingshu E Chen, Zhenxian Gong, Eddie Chan, Edward Feng, and Marko Duic.
• Department of Family Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada.
• Emerg Med J. 2018 Jan 1; 35 (1): 5-11.

ObjectivesWe created Physician Navigators in our ED to help improve emergency physician (EP) productivity. We aimed to quantify the effect of Physician Navigators on measures of EP productivity: patient seen per hour (Pt/hr), and turn-around time (TAT) to discharge. Secondary objectives included examining their impact on measures of ED throughput for non-resuscitative patients: ED length of stay (LOS), door-to-physician time and left-without-being-seen rates (LWBS).MethodsIn this retrospective study, 6845 clinical shifts worked by 20 EPs at a community ED in Newmarket, Canada from 1 January 2012 to 31 March 2015 were evaluated. Using a clustered design, we compared productivity measures between shifts with and without Physician Navigators, by physician. We used a linear mixed model to examine mean changes in Pt/hr and TAT to discharge for EPs who employed Physician Navigators. For secondary objectives, autoregressive modelling was performed to compare ED throughput metrics before and after the implementation of Physician Navigators for non-resuscitative patients.ResultsPatient volumes increased by 20 patients per day (p<0.001). Mean Pt/hr increased by 1.07 patients per hour (0.98 to 1.16, p<0.001). The mean TAT to discharge decreased by 10.6 min (-13.2 to -8.0, p<0.001). After implementation of the Physician Navigator programme, overall mean LOS for non-resuscitative patients decreased by 2.6 min (p=0.007), and mean door-to-physician time decreased by 7.4 min (p<0.001). LBWS rates decreased from 1.13% to 0.63% of daily patient volume (p<0.001).ConclusionDespite an ED volume increase, the use of a Physician Navigator was associated with significant improvements in EP productivity, and significant reductions in ED throughput times.© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

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