A Review of Interprofessional Variation in Education: Challenges and Considerations in the Growth of Advanced Practice Providers in Emergency Medicine.

The employment and utilization of advanced practice providers (APPs) in the emergency department has been steadily increasing. Physicians, physician assistants (PAs), and nurse practitioners (NPs) have vastly different requirements for admission to graduate programs, clinical exposure, and postgraduate training. It is important that as supervisory physicians, patients, hospital administrators, and lawmakers, we understand the differences to best create a collaborative, supportive, and educational framework within which PAs/NPs can work effectively as part of a care team.

Evaluation of Process Improvement Interventions on Handoff Times between the Emergency Department and Observation Unit.

Background: Mitigating hospital crowding requires judicious use of inpatient resources, making Emergency Department Observation Units (EDOUs) an increasingly vital destination for patients that are not suitable for discharge. Maximizing the utility of the EDOU hinges on efficient patient transfers and safe provider communication, which may be accomplished with asynchronous handoff and an emphasis on pull-through operations.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of an electronic, asynchronous handoff replacing verbal handoff on transfer times from the Emergency Department (ED) to the EDOU.

The Design and Implementation of a Professional Development Program for Physician Assistants in an Academic Emergency Department.

Physician assistants (PAs) are expanding their role in academic emergency departments (EDs). There are no published models for how to integrate PAs into departmental educational activities, scholarship, and operations outside of a PA residency approach. We created a professional development program for PAs that would provide them with opportunities to integrate into all aspects of our department mission and provide them with a forum for personal growth and ongoing education.

Attending documentation contribution to billing at an academic ED with an electronic health record.

Introduction: In emergency medicine (EM), patient care documentation serves many functions, including supporting reimbursement. In addition, many electronic health record systems facilitate automatically populating certain data fields. As a result, in the academic model, the attending's note may now more often recapitulate many of the same elements found in the resident's or physician assistant's (PA) note.