Coping with stress in emergency department physicians through improved patient-flow management
Fecha
2020Versión
Acceso abierto / Sarbide irekia
Tipo
Artículo / Artikulua
Versión
Versión publicada / Argitaratu den bertsioa
Identificador del proyecto
ES/1PE/MTM2016-77015-R
Impacto
|
10.1016/j.seps.2020.100828
Resumen
This paper provides a method for the real-time monitoring of job stress in emergency department (ED) physicians. It is implemented in a Decision Support System (DSS) designed for patient-to-physician assignment after triage. Our concept of job stress includes not only the workload but also time pressure and uncertainty. A job stress function is estimated based on the consensus views of ED physici ...
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This paper provides a method for the real-time monitoring of job stress in emergency department (ED) physicians. It is implemented in a Decision Support System (DSS) designed for patient-to-physician assignment after triage. Our concept of job stress includes not only the workload but also time pressure and uncertainty. A job stress function is estimated based on the consensus views of ED physicians obtained through a novel methodology involving stress factor analysis, questionnaire design, and the statistical analysis of expert opinions. The resulting stress score enables the assessment of job stress using workload data from the ED physicians’ whiteboard. These data can be used for the real-time measurement and monitoring of ED physician job stress in a stochastic and dynamic environment, which is the main novelty of this method as compared to previous workload and stress measurement proposals. A further advantage of this methodology is that it is general enough to be adapted to physician job stress monitoring in any ED. The use of the DSS for ED patient-flow management reduces job stress and spreads it more evenly among the whole team of physicians, while also improving other important ED performance measures such as arrival-to-provider time and the percentage of compliance with patient waiting time targets. A case study illustrates the application of the methodology for the construction of a stress-score, the monitoring of physician stress levels, and ED patient-flow management. [--]
Materias
Job stress monitoring,
Emergency department,
Workload,
Eliciting expert opinion,
Patient flow management,
Decision support system
Editor
Elsevier
Publicado en
Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, 2020, 71, 100828
Departamento
Universidad Pública de Navarra. Departamento de Estadística, Informática y Matemáticas /
Universidad Pública de Navarra/Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa. Institute of Smart Cities - ISC /
Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa. Estatistika, Informatika eta Matematika Saila
Versión del editor
Entidades Financiadoras
This research is supported by the Grant MTM2016-77015-R (AEI, FEDER).