Evaluating Outcomes and Time Delays of a Non-Trainee-Driven Hospitalist Procedure Service

Ultrasound guidance has become standard of care in hospital medicine for invasive bedside procedures, especially central venous catheter placement. Despite ultrasound-guided bedside procedures having a high degree of success, only a few hospitalists perform them. This is because these are usually performed by radiologists or in the setting of trainee-run procedure teams. We sought to determine the impact of a non-trainee driven , hospitalist-run procedure service relative to time from consult to procedure.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital (UAB), Department of Hospital Medicine, trained 8 non-trainee hospitalist physicians (from existing staff) to implement the ultrasound-guided procedure service. This study examines consult to procedure completion time since the implementation of the procedure service (2014 to 2020). Univariate analyses are used to analyze pre-implementation (2012-2014), pilot (2014-2016), and post-implementation data (2016-2018 initial, and 2018-2020 sustained).

Results suggest a 50% reduction in time from consult to procedure completion when compared with the period before implementation of the nontrainee hospitalist procedure service.

A hospitalist procedure service, which does not include trainees, results in less time lag from consult to procedure completion time, which could increase patient satisfaction and improve throughput. As such, this study has wide generalizability to community hospitals and other nonacademic medical centers that may not have trainees.