Triage Liaison Physician - Evaluation of a Novel Approach to Address Emergency Department Overcrowding

September 11, 2008 updated by: University of Alberta

Randomized Controlled Trial of a Liaison Physician at the Triage Desk to Reduce Emergency Department Overcrowding and Improve Patient Flow.

This randomized controlled trial will introduce a triage liaison physician (TLP) into the University of Alberta Hospital Emergency Department (ED) and assess the influence on patients who leave without being seen, ED length of stay, and other ED Overcrowding outcomes.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

ED Overcrowding is a significant cause of delayed care, patient dissatisfaction, and poor outcomes in North American EDs. This intervention has not been widely studied; however, it represents an opportunity for improving patient flows in EDs.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

5718

Phase

  • Phase 4

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • Alberta
      • Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2B7
        • University of Alberta Hospital

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

17 years and older (Child, Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Only adult patients (> 17 years of age) presenting to the University of Alberta Hospital Emergency Department (UAH ED), during the study interval will be included in the evaluation.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Direct admits/Pediatric patients.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: 1
No triage liaison physician
Behavioral: Triage Liaison Physician
triage liaison physician stationed with nurses at the triage desk of the Emergency Department.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Median patient length of stay
Time Frame: while in the Emergency Department
while in the Emergency Department

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Left without being seen
Time Frame: while in the Emergency Department
while in the Emergency Department
ambulance turnaround times
Time Frame: while in the Emergency Department
while in the Emergency Department
satisfaction (physicians and nurses)
Time Frame: following their Emergency Department shift
following their Emergency Department shift
TLP activity
Time Frame: while in the Emergency Department
while in the Emergency Department

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Alberta

Investigators

  • Study Director: Brian H Rowe, MD, University of Alberta

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

December 1, 2005

Primary Completion (Actual)

February 1, 2006

Study Completion (Actual)

June 1, 2006

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 15, 2007

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 15, 2007

First Posted (Estimate)

February 16, 2007

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

September 12, 2008

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 11, 2008

Last Verified

September 1, 2008

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • B-091105

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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