scholarly journals Emergency department physicians’ distribution of time in the fast paced-workflow-a novel time-motion study of drug-related activities

Author(s):  
Lisbeth D. Nymoen ◽  
Therese Tran ◽  
Scott R. Walter ◽  
Elin C. Lehnbom ◽  
Ingrid K. Tunestveit ◽  
...  

AbstractBackground In the emergency department physicians are forced to distribute their time to ensure that all admitted patients receive appropriate emergency care. Previous studies have raised concerns about medication discrepancies in patient’s drug lists at admission to the emergency department. Thus, it is important to study how emergency department physicians distribute their time, to highlight where workflow redesign can be needed.Aim to quantify how emergency department physicians distribute their time between various task categories, with particular focus on drug-related tasks.Method Direct observation, time-motion study of emergency department physicians at Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Oslo, Norway. Physicians’ activities were categorized in discrete categories and data were collected with the validated method of Work Observation Method By Activity Timing between October 2018 to January 2019. Bootstrap analysis determined 95% confidence intervals for proportions and interruption rates.Results During the observation time of 91.4 h, 31 emergency department physicians were observed. In total, physicians spent majority of their time gathering information (36.5%), communicating (26.3%), and documenting (24.2%). Further, physicians spent 17.8% (95% CI 16.8%, 19.3%) of their time on drug-related tasks. On average, physicians spent 7.8 min (95% CI 7.2, 8.6) per hour to obtain and document patients’ drug lists.Conclusion Emergency department physicians are required to conduct numerous essential tasks and distributes a minor proportion of their time on drug-related tasks. More efficient information flow regarding drugs should be facilitated at transitions of care. The presence of healthcare personnel dedicated to obtaining drug lists in the emergency department should be considered.

2016 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. S15
Author(s):  
M.A. Coplin ◽  
A. Cardell ◽  
M. Lall ◽  
J. Siegelman ◽  
M. Demestihas ◽  
...  

2009 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 462-468.e1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Yen ◽  
Elizabeth L. Shane ◽  
Sachin S. Pawar ◽  
Nicole D. Schwendel ◽  
Robert J. Zimmanck ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. e49-70
Author(s):  
Cameron Leafloor ◽  
Erin (Yiran) Liu ◽  
Cathy Code ◽  
Heather Lochnan ◽  
Erin Keely ◽  
...  

Background: The effects of changes to resident physician duty hours need to be measureable. This time-motion study was done to record internal medicine residents’ workflow while on duty and to determine the feasibility of capturing detailed data using a mobile electronic tool.Methods: Junior and senior residents were shadowed by a single observer during six-hour blocks of time, covering all seven days. Activities were recorded in real-time. Eighty-nine activities grouped into nine categories were determined a priori.Results: A total of 17,714 events were recorded, encompassing 516 hours of observation. Time was apportioned in the following categories: Direct Patient Care (22%), Communication (19%), Personal tasks (15%), Documentation (14%), Education (13%), Indirect care (11%), Transit (6%), Administration (0.6%), and Non-physician tasks (0.4%). Nineteen percent of the education time was spent in self-directed learning activities. Only 9% of the total on duty time was spent in the presence of patients. Sixty-five percent of communication time was devoted to information transfer. A total of 968 interruptions were recorded which took on average 93.5 seconds each to service.Conclusion: Detailed recording of residents’ workflow is feasible and can now lead to the measurement of the effects of future changes to residency training. Education activities accounted for 13% of on-duty time. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 2422
Author(s):  
Yasmin Abdul Aziz ◽  
Susan J. Heydon ◽  
Stephen B. Duffull ◽  
Carlo A. Marra

Background: Pharmacists report to be providing patient-focused clinical services for which they receive no remuneration. Limited literature exists about unfunded services leading to difficulties in ascertaining an appropriate study design for such research. Objective: This study aims to assess the appropriateness of a proposed study design before launching a nationwide study to investigate the provision of unfunded patient care services. Methods: A multi-methods approach was utilised consisting of (1) continuous time motion study in community pharmacies (2) semi structured patient interviews (3) patient follow up (4) semi structured interviews with pharmacy owners/managers. All observations of unfunded patient care services were recorded, numerically coded and descriptively analysed. Semi structured interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. A semantic thematic analysis was carried out. Appropriateness of study design was dictated by the ability to characterise services and obtain patient perceptions. Results: Ten pharmacies took part in the feasibility study, across the city of Dunedin, New Zealand, representing a range of different practice settings and demographics. Ten patients were interviewed and six responded to follow up. Both pharmacy and patient recruitment proved challenging due to concerns around disruption to workflow and patient privacy. A continuous observation time motion study was found to be appropriate as it minimises disruption to workflow with no additional work required from the pharmacy teams. Conclusions: A continuous observation time motion study proved to be an appropriate method to investigate the provision of unfunded services on a national scale. The findings of the study suggest design changes such as length of observation time, increasing patient recruitment and additional patient questions to enhance the nationwide study.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Boakye

The acceptance of electronic laboratory information system (LIS) is gradually increasing in developing countries. However, the issue of time effectiveness due to computerization is less clear as there is fewer accessible information. One of the key issues for laboratorians is their indecision with LISs’ would-be effect of time on their work. A polyclinic in Ghana was in the process of implementing electronic LIS. Several of the laboratorians did not have knowledge and skill in computing and there were disagreeing views on the time effectiveness of the LIS after implementation. The management of the polyclinic laboratory was concerned to assess time advantageousness of recording data when using the electronic LIS compared with paper-based LIS. <div><br></div><div>Five randomly selected laboratorians were provided two sheets of paper with tables to document the time they spent for both paper-based and electronic LIS. Data were collected for a total of 230 records,115 electronic LIS and 115 paper-based LIS. The t-test (mean-comparison test) was computed to compare the means of both electronic and paperbased LIS times. </div><div><br></div><div>There was a statistical significant difference in the time spent between electronic and paper-based LIS. The time spent between paper-based and electronic LIS was 0.41 minutes (95% CI 0.15 to 0.66) longer than in electronic LIS. </div><div><br></div><div>LIS can be adopted in polyclinics without having significant negative impact on time spent between electronic and paper-based LIS. More time–motion studies that include laboratorians are however necessary in order to get a more complete picture of time spent between electronic and paper-based LIS. </div>


Author(s):  
Roxanne Müller ◽  
Christine Cohen ◽  
Philippe Delmas ◽  
Jérôme Pasquier ◽  
Marine Baillif ◽  
...  

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