ED Adaptive Staffing Study (FAST-ED)

Oak Valley Health

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Emergency Medicine; Well-Being, Psychological

Treatments: Other: Staffing model

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05937763

148-2306

Details and patient eligibility

About

Emergency Departments (EDs) across Ontario are being inundated with unprecedented high patient volumes and a staffing shortage that directly impacts patient care and flow. An area of concern among EDs is the offload zone where patients are brought in by ambulance. EMS offload time is the time it takes paramedics to transfer a patient to the appropriate area within an emergency department and give hospital staff a summary of what concerns the patient is seeking care for. There are multiple factors that may delay this time, including limited staff in the offload area to complete the transfer process due to competing patient care responsibilities. The adaptive staffing model study will look to add a primary care paramedic (PCP) or a registered nurse (RN) in the offload zone during times of high ambulance volume (August to January) to help with patient care within the offload zone. This single-centered community hospital study will evaluate the benefits of having a PCP or RN, compared to the current model, on ambulance offload times, patient safety outcomes, patient treatment times, and staff well-being using three different models of staffing.

Enrollment: 5,917 estimated patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Patients brought in by ambulance to hospitals emergency department offload area

Exclusion criteria

• Patients not arriving to the hospitals emergency department offload area

Trial design

5,917 participants in 3 patient groups

Primary Care Paramedic (PCP) Block

Description:

A PCP will be staffed in the emergency department offload zone 3 days a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) on a 10am - 10pm shift, in addition to the standard staffing model.

Treatment:

Other: Staffing model

Registered Nurse (RN) Block

Description:

An experienced emergency department RN with triage training will be staffed in the emergency department offload zone 3 days a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) in a 10am - 10pm shift, in addition to the standard staffing model

Treatment:

Other: Staffing model

Current Workflow Block

Description:

The currently hospitals staffing models of the emergency department offload zone.