Date of Award
2020
Document Type
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
Degree Name
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
Department
Nursing
Committee Chair
Amy Hunter
Subject(s)
Hospitals--Emergency services--Evaluation--United States, Patient satisfaction, Triage (Medicine), Emergency nursing
Abstract
Over the last decade, an increasing number of Americans have been using emergency departments as their main source of healthcare. This has led to a dramatic increase in emergency department utilization rates in the United States. Overcrowding is a direct consequence of increased emergency department utilization. Overcrowding has led to long wait times from patients’ arrival in the emergency department to first contact with the healthcare provider. Long wait times in the emergency department can cause considerable delays in patient care and negatively affect patient satisfaction level. Delays in patient evaluation and treatment in the emergency department also carry certain risks, including potentially devastating health consequences for patients. To address overcrowding and delay in care, hospitals have adopted a combination of strategies including infrastructure improvement to increase emergency department capacity and patient flow methods to streamline emergency department processes for efficiency. This DNP project reviewed data on the use of the mid-level provider screener model as a process efficiency strategy to improve emergency department door-to-provider times at AdventHealth Gordon, formerly Gordon Hospital, in Calhoun, Georgia. The project found the mid-level provider screener model to be an effective strategy in reducing emergency department door-to-provider times by 55%. Through this method, AdventHealth Gordon was able to reduce its average emergency department door-to-provider times from 40 minutes to 18 minutes.
Recommended Citation
Njungwe, Eric Ngonji, "Using the mid-level provider screener model to decrease door-to-provider time in the emergency department" (2020). Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP). 36.
https://louis.uah.edu/uah-dnp/36