RATE OF PATIENT WORKUPS BY NON-EMERGENCY MEDICINE RESIDENTS IN AN ACADEMIC EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT

Objective: To quantify the number of patients seen per hour by non-eme rgency medicine (non-EM) residents in a university hospital ED. Method s: This retrospective observational study was performed in a universit y hospital ED and level I trauma center. The facility had no EM reside ncy, but was staffed with 24-hour EM faculty coverage. A computerized tracking system was searched for the number of patients seen by each o f 93 non-EM residents for 12 nonconsecutive months. The ED schedule fo r each month was used to calculate the number of hours worked by each resident. From these figures, the number of patients seen per hour by each resident was calculated. Results: The postgraduate years of train ing of the residents were as follows: 78 (84%) were PGY1, ten (11%) we re PGY2, and five (5%) were PGY3. All the residents combined saw a mea n 0.95 +/- 0.20 patients/hour, with a range from 0.58 to 1.75 patients /hour. There was no significant difference between the numbers of pati ents seen when compared by specialty using the Tukey-Kramer test (alph a = 0.05). Conclusion: The rate at which non-EM residents work up pati ents is consistent with previously reported rates for EM residents.