Do new workforce roles reduce waiting times in ED? A difference-in-difference evaluation using hospital administrative data

Abstract

This paper evaluates the effect of introducing two new workforce roles under a pilot program conducted in Victoria, Australia. The trial took place at a regional hospital's emergency department (ED) between 1 July 2008 and 30 June 2009. The evaluation is based on three outcome measures: waiting time (in minutes) at ED before treatment; proportion of presentations with waiting time on target; and length of stay (in days), for ED presentations that led to in-patient admissions. The technique of difference-in-differences analysis is used. A total of 142,980 patient records from the pilot hospital and three comparison hospitals were extracted from the Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD). ..