title: Attending coverage in academic emergency medicine: a national survey.
abstract: We surveyed the 66 accredited emergency medicine residency programs in the United States during 1986 on the issue of attending coverage. Responses were received from 411 residents and 288 faculty; this accounted for 42% of the residents and 56% of the faculty from the 56 responding programs. Seventy-three percent of emergency medicine residency programs had 24-hour attending coverage. According to residents, faculty from programs with 24-hour coverage spent a greater percentage of their shift doing primary patient care than faculty from programs without 24-hour coverage (35% vs 17%, respectively, P less than .0001), and a smaller percentage of their shift educating residents (21% vs 30%, respectively, P less than .0001). Ninety-five percent of faculty and 71% of residents thought that the quality of patient care was better when faculty were present in the ED (P less than .0001). Sixty-one percent of residents and 60% of faculty did not think that 24-hour attending coverage in academic emergency medicine should be mandated. The impact of night-time attending coverage in emergency medicine residency programs on patient care, resident education, and faculty development is unclear and minimally studied.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance 90509.
authors.forename: P L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Henneman
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Hockberger
authors.forename: C Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Chiu
mesh_terms: D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000193:education*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005180:Faculty, Medical; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013996:Time and Motion Studies; D014481:United States; D000078329:Workforce