Second unit of analysis. Researchers estimate the effect of multitasking on individual physician throughput rate. In contrast to the previous analysis, they hold the time period of observation constant, and examine the number of patients discharged, while varying the level of multitasking. Specifically, they examine patient throughput over the course of the physician’s shift.

Macalester College

Researchers assembled the data from the emergency department at an East Coast metropolitan hospital for twelve consecutive quarters beginning in October 2004 and ending in September 2007. The data collection was supplemented with field observations and interviews with clinical staff. The data include information on each patient visit, the treatments and outcomes, and the level of multitasking for each emergency room physician. The sample size of patients was 145935.

Data Collection (Does Multitasking Improve Performance? Evidence from the Emergency Department)

Diwas, K.C., (2013) Does Multitasking Improve Performance? Evidence from the Emergency Department. Emory University Goizueta Business School. 
Electronic copy available at https://ssrn.com/abstract=2261757


Does Multitasking Improve Performance? Evidence from the Emergency Department

The average patient is 34.4 years of age. Slightly more females (ratio = 0.527) visit the ED than males. The study's unique patient identifier allow researchers to determine any incidence of revisit to the same ED within 24 hours. They find that the 24-hour revisit rate for any complaint is 2.53%

Demographics (Does Multitasking Improve Performance? Evidence from the Emergency Department)

The emergency department has a total of 14 licensed beds. As with a large number of other EDs, this hospital has responded to bed shortages by adding makeshift hallway beds. During the course of the site visits, researchers observed 5 hallway beds. However, the number of hallway beds has varied over the course of the 3-year study period.

ED Characteristics (Does Multitasking Improve Performance? Evidence from the Emergency Department)

- One of the outcome measures in the study is the busy period, defined as the time taken to discharge a given number of patients. During the period of study, 19562 busy periods were completed; the busy period duration was 4.97 hours, and involved 7.46 patients. 

- As an illustrative example, physician Smith is assigned to her first patient (patient 1) at 10 AM on a given day. She then picks up patients 2 and 3, and continues working on all three patients, until the last of these three patients is discharged at 2 PM that day. The busy period associated with these three patients is 4 hours.


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