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New initiatives to address emergency department crowding are urgently needed. In a prospective observational study, researchers assessed whether adding a nurse practitioner (NP) to the staff of a 24-hour free-standing community ED in Alberta, Canada, with 46,600 annual visits affected wait time, length of stay, and the percentage of patients who left without being seen. The NP worked 3.5 eight-hour day shifts per week and had a scope of practice similar to that of residents. The NP managed patients with low-acuity conditions autonomously and managed patients with higher-acuity conditions collaboratively with an emergency physician.
Of 3238 patient visits during a 6-month period, 1924 occurred during 68 intervention shifts (with the NP) and 1…