The Impact of Full-Time Attending Physician in the Pediatric Emergency Department

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Objective: The purpose of this study was to indirectly evaluate the impact of full-time pediatric emergency physician on the quality
of medical services.
Methods: This study was a retrospective study that was performed by using the medical records of new patients aged less than 16
years old, residing in Cheonan and Asan, who visited the pediatric emergency department (PED) of Soonchyunhayng University
Cheonan Hospital from December 1, 2011 to December 31, 2016. The correlations between the outpatient revisit following the
emergency department visit and socio-demographic characteristics, number of physicians, reasons for the visit, severity based on
the Korean Triage and Acuity System, length of stay, and whether or not tests were conducted were analyzed.
Results: Total of 30,728 patients were included. The significant factors affecting the outpatient revisit were the patient’s age
(P=0.00; odds ratio [OR], 1.004), number of physicians (P=0.03; OR, 1.066), and length of stay (P=0.00; OR, 1.004). When the number
of physicians was appropriate, the length of stay was reduced (P=0.00; OR, 0.999), and the rate of test (P=0.00; OR, 0.835) were
reduced.
Conclusion: It is believed that having an appropriate number of physicians will indirectly increase the patient’s satisfaction, and be
helpful in improving the quality of the medical services in PED.