Gaughan, James orcid.org/0000-0002-8409-140X, Liu, Dan orcid.org/0000-0002-1891-9352, Gutacker, Nils orcid.org/0000-0002-2833-0621 et al. (3 more authors) (2022) Does the presence of general practitioners in emergency departments affect quality and safety in English NHS hospitals?:A retrospective observational study. BMJ Open. e055976. ISSN 2044-6055
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Emergency departments (EDs) in NHS hospitals in England have faced considerable increases in demand over recent years. Most hospitals have developed general practitioner services in emergency departments (GPEDs) to treat non-emergency patients, aiming to relieve pressure on other staff and to improve ED efficiency and patient experience. We measured the impact of GPED services on patient flows, health outcomes and ED workload. DESIGN: Retrospective observational study. Differences in GPED service availability across EDs and time of day were used to identify the causal effect of GPED, as patients attending the ED at the same hour of the day are quasi-randomly assigned to treatment or control groups based on their local ED's service availability. PARTICIPANTS: Attendances to 40 EDs in English NHS hospitals from April 2018 to March 2019, 4 441 349 observations. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOMES MEASURED: Outcomes measured were volume of attendances, 'non-urgent' attendances, waiting times over 4 hours, patients leaving without being treated, unplanned reattendances within 7 days, inpatient admissions and 30-day mortality. RESULTS: We found a small, statistically significant reduction in unplanned reattendances within 7 days (OR 0.968, 95% CI 0.948 to 0.989), equivalent to 302 fewer reattendances per year for the average ED. The clinical impact of this was judged to be negligible. There was no detectable impact on any other outcome measure. CONCLUSIONS: We found no adverse effects on patient outcomes; neither did we find any evidence of the hypothesised benefits of placing GPs in emergency settings beyond a marginal reduction in reattendances that was not considered clinically significant.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ. |
Keywords: | Emergency Service, Hospital,General Practitioners,Hospitals,Humans,Retrospective Studies,State Medicine |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Social Sciences (York) > Centre for Health Economics (York) The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Health Sciences (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 18 Jan 2022 10:00 |
Last Modified: | 03 Mar 2025 00:07 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055976 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055976 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:182648 |
Downloads
Filename: Manuscript.docx
Description: Manuscript
Filename: Appendix_A_Description_of_outcomes.docx
Description: Appendix A - Description of outcomes