CROSS-TRAINING DEPTH AND PATIENT FLOW EFFICIENCY: A STOCHASTIC FRONTIER ANALYSIS OF EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTS

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between cross-training and patient flow efficiency in emergency department (ED). The paper addresses the issue of enhancing the patient management and ED output with the deeper cross-training of healthcare personnel. It was a cross-sectional study and the mixed-methods approach where both the qualitative and quantitative data were used. Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) established the relationship between the depth in cross training and the efficiency of the flow of patients. Information on 12 months on 15 U.S. EDs in hospitals was used with 1,200 patients’ cases studied. The level of cross-training was quantified by the number of roles by which healthcare professionals were trained whereas the efficiency of the patient flow was evaluated with the key performance indicators such as wait times and throughput. The findings indicated that the deeper cross-training, the better the flow of patients within a given ED (beta = 0.25, p < 0.05). This paper will bring out the operational advantages of cross training implying that more versatile staffing may lead to an improvement in patient flow. Researchers can study in the future the way in which training cross-patient effects can be longer lasting regarding patient outcomes. Such results provide useful information in enhancing ED operations using cross-training.