Table 4.

Results comparing two approaches using the hospital emergency department model

Performance measure	Value (95% CI)	Difference (SD)
Utilization**
Physician-Without interaction	23%	18%
With reaction	41%
Delegate-Without interaction	56%	15%
With interaction	71%
Time from arrival to bed (minutes)
High acuity-Without interaction	20.39 (20.06, 20.72)	1.08* (0.26)
With interaction	21.47 (21.19, 21.75)
Low acuity-Without interaction	68.94 (62.87, 75.01)	19.55* (1.47)
With interaction	88.49 (80.36, 96.62)
Patient waiting time for physician or delegate (minutes)
Physician (high acuity)-Without interaction	0.49 (0.44, 0.54)	0.53* (0.04)
With interaction	1.02 (0.96, 1.08)
Physician (low acuity)-Without interaction	0.56 (0.55, 0.57)	0.93* (0.02)
With interaction	1.49 (1.46, 1.52)
Delegate (low acuity)-Without interaction	0.15 (0.14, 0.16)	0.37* (0.01)
With interaction	0.52 (0.49, 0.55)
Patient time with the delegate (minutes)
Delegate (low acuity)-Without interaction	14.50 (14.5, 14.5)	10.01* (0.01)
With interaction	24.51 (24.48, 24.51)
Average total length of stay (minutes)
Physician (high acuity)-Without interaction	85.91 (85.15, 86.67)	0.92 (0.61)
With interaction	86.83 (85.88, 87.78)
Physician (low acuity)-Without interaction	118.54 (111.13, 125.78)	18.45* (1.31)
With interaction	136.99 (128.47, 145.51)
Delegate (low acuity)-Without interaction	114.84 (108.32, 121.36)	27.23* (1.36)
With interaction	142.07 (135.48, 148.66)
All low acuity patients-Without interaction	116.66 (110.49, 122.83)	23.1* (0.94)
With interaction	138.91 (130.86, 146.96)

*statistically significant at the 5% level, **includes interaction time.

CI confidence interval, SD standard deviation.