Although previous research has associated clinician expertise with improved patient outcomes, emergency department (ED) clinicians often work in various clinical settings beyond the ED. This implies that there may be a risk of lower expertise due to lower clinical focus, indicating a need for the characterization of national clinical focus among national ED physicians.
Using a cross-sectional analysis performed on 2017 Medicare Public Use Files, a new study led by Cameron Gettel found that Evaluation & Management (EM) physicians had twice as much clinical focus in comparison to non-EM physicians providing emergency care to Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries. These findings suggest that there is a need for more diverse training and certification programs to ensure access to clinically-focused ED clinicians.
Other collaborators on this study include Maureen Canavan, Gail D'Onofrio, PISC Senior Scholar Brendan Carr, and Arjun Venkatesh.