Quantifying Physician Activities in Emergency Care: An Exploratory Study

摘要

Emergency departments (ED) are prototypical complex environments. Physician activities in these settingsare characterized as episodic, dynamic and collaborative. Using an exploratory study supported byobservations, physician shadowing and interviews, we characterize the physician’s activities in an EDincluding the nature of activities, the time allocated for these activities, how these activities are distributedacross the unit and the susceptibility of these activities for interruptions. We found that approximately onefourth(～25%) of the physician activities (e.g., direct patient care) were localized at specific locations in theunit, while the rest of the activities (e.g., communication) were distributed across the unit and were lesspredictable. The non-localized activities had a likelihood of interruptions. The results have importantimplications for mitigating the physician workload, and the design of technologies for monitoring suchcomplex settings.