title: Emergency department rapid medical assessment: overall effect and mechanistic considerations.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although the use of a physician and nurse team at triage has been shown to improve emergency department (ED) throughput, the mechanism(s) by which these improvements occur is less clear.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  1) To describe the effect of a Rapid Medical Assessment (RMA) team on ED length of stay (LOS) and rate of left without being seen (LWBS); 2) To estimate the effect of RMA on different groups of patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  For Objective 1, we compared LOS and LWBS on dates when we utilized RMA to comparable dates when we did not. For Objective 2, we utilized patient logs to divide patients into groups and estimated the effects of the RMA on each.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Objective 1. LOS fell from 297.8 min pre-RMA to 261.7 min during RMA, an improvement of 36.1 (95% confidence interval 21.8-50.4) min; LWBS did not change significantly. Objective 2. Patients seen and dispositioned by the RMA had an estimated decrease in LOS of 117.8 min (estimated decrease in LOS of 45%), but patients seen by the RMA whose care was transitioned to the main ED had an estimated increase in LOS of 25.0 min (estimated increase in LOS of 8%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  On a system level, the addition of an RMA shift at a single facility was associated with an improvement in LOS, but not LWBS. On a mechanistic level, it seems that improvements occurred as a result of the rapid disposition component of the RMA rather than placing advanced orders at triage.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, Ariz; Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minn.
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Traub
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, Ariz; Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minn.
authors.forename: Joseph P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, Ariz; Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minn.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kelley
authors.affiliation: Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minn; Department of Emergency Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.
authors.forename: David M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Nestler
authors.affiliation: Division of Health Sciences Research, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, Ariz.
authors.forename: Yu-Hui
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minn; School of Computing, Informatics and Decision Systems Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz.
authors.forename: Soroush
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saghafian
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, Ariz; Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minn.
authors.forename: Christopher A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Lipinski
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010348:Patient Care Team; D010351:Patient Discharge / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017064:Process Assessment, Health Care; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D016312:Treatment Refusal / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014218:Triage / Q000379:methods* / Q000458:organization & administration
keywords: advanced triage; physician in triage; rapid medical assessment; throughput