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Doctor's assistants--do we need them?

H Law¹, J Sloan

¹Accident and Emergency Department, St James's University Hospital, Leeds.

Journal of Accident & Emergency Medicine

|April 7, 1999

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Implementing a doctor's assistant in accident and emergency (A&E) departments can significantly reduce consultant workload by handling non-medical tasks. This role shows potential for optimizing senior doctor efficiency and alleviating pressure.

Area of Science:

Emergency Medicine
Healthcare Management

Background:

Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments face significant consultant workload pressures.
The integration of physician assistants in American emergency departments offers a comparative model.

Purpose of the Study:

To evaluate the impact of a doctor's assistant on consultant workload in a UK A&E department.
To assess the potential for a doctor's assistant to optimize A&E consultant time allocation.

Main Methods:

A time and motion study was conducted on four A&E consultants before and after the introduction of a doctor's assistant.
Literature review comparing the UK doctor's assistant role with the US physician assistant model in emergency settings.

Main Results:

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Over 20% of consultant time could be saved by delegating non-medical tasks to an assistant.

Significant reductions were observed in time spent on clerical duties, telephone use, and venepuncture/cannula insertion.

Consultants dedicated more time to case consultations and staff supervision post-assistant implementation.

Conclusions:

A doctor's assistant role can effectively re-profile workload for senior doctors in UK A&E departments.
This role may help mitigate pressure on junior doctors, although this was not directly studied.