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Medical student effect on emergency department length of stay
P Gerbeaux1, V Ledoray, H Liauthaud
1Service d'Accueil et de Traitement des Urgences and Département d'Information Médicale, Hôpital de la Conception, Marseille, France. pgerbeaux@mail.ap-hm.fr
Study Objective:
Taking advantage of a medical student strike, the authors evaluated the effect of medical students on emergency department length of stay (LOS).
Methods:
ED LOS and patient characteristics were compared for the 4-day strike period and the same days the week before. Proportions were compared by using the Mann-Whitney U test and the chi(2) test (P <.05).
Results:
Eight hundred thirty-one patients were studied. There was no significant difference between the study and control periods for the general patient characteristics or laboratory or radiologic investigations. Median LOS decreased by 24% (31 minutes, 95% confidence interval [CI] 24 to 38) during the strike (110 minutes [95% CI 65 to 178] to 79 minutes [95% CI 40 to 135], P <10(-4)).
Conclusion:
Medical students lengthen ED LOS. This should be explained to patients and should be considered as one justification for increasing medical staff in the teaching ED.