Emergency Department Interruptions Adversely Affect Patient Satisfaction

Interruptions are inevitable in emergency departments (EDs), and studies to date have primarily addressed their effect on patient safety. To further characterize interruptions and assess their effect on patient satisfaction, researchers observed ED attending and resident physicians at a single tertiary care center in 4-hour blocks during a 2-month period.

Physicians were interrupted most often while charting (53% of the time spent charting), reviewing data (50%), or engaging in professional discussions (35%). Patient encounters were interrupted 26% of the time. Patients were significantly less satisfied when encounters were interrupted than when they were not interrupted. Overall, 59% of interruptions were generated by other medical provider…