Assessing the Role of Nurse Practitioners in Reducing Emergency Department Overcrowding Rates

Posted: Jan 13, 2023

• Lillian Adams
• Lincoln Scott
• Logan Rivera

Abstract

Emergency department overcrowding represents a critical challenge in healthcare systems worldwide, contributing to prolonged wait times, compromised patient outcomes, and increased healthcare costs. This research presents a novel methodological framework for quantifying the impact of nurse practitioners in mitigating emergency department congestion through a multi-dimensional analytical approach. Unlike previous studies that primarily focused on physician-led interventions or structural changes, our investigation employs a hybrid methodology combining discrete event simulation, time-series analysis of patient flow patterns, and machine learning algorithms to model the complex dynamics of emergency department operations. We developed a unique patient classification system that categorizes cases by complexity and resource requirements, enabling precise assessment of nurse practitioner effectiveness across different patient cohorts. Our longitudinal study encompassed 12 emergency departments across diverse healthcare settings over a 24-month period, collecting comprehensive data on 84,372 patient encounters. The results demonstrate that strategic deployment of nurse practitioners in specific patient care pathways reduced average length of stay by 28.7% for low-to-moderate acuity cases and decreased left-without-being-seen rates by 42.3%. Furthermore, our analysis revealed previously undocumented synergistic effects when nurse practitioners collaborated with physicians in hybrid care models, achieving a 19.4% improvement in overall department throughput. The research introduces an original predictive model that identifies optimal staffing configurations based on real-time patient influx patterns, providing healthcare administrators with an evidence-based tool for dynamic resource allocation. This study makes significant contributions to both healthcare operations research and emergency medicine by establishing quantitative relationships between advanced practice nursing roles and emergency department efficiency metrics, while proposing innovative solutions to a persistent healthcare delivery challenge.