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

@entity1 @entity341
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 @entity341 ( @entity341 ) between 1 July 2008 and 30 June 2009. The evaluation is based on three outcome measures: waiting time (in minutes) at @entity341 before treatment; proportion of presentations with waiting time on target; and length of stay (in days), for @entity341 presentations that led to in- @entity1 admissions. The technique of difference-in-differences analysis is used. A total of 142,980 @entity1 records from the pilot hospital and three comparison hospitals were extracted from the Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset (VEMD). Further, 21,925 records of @entity1 whose @entity341 presentations led to in- @entity1 admissions were extracted from the Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset (VAED). The evaluation finds the piloted roles have lowered waiting time and raised the proportion of on-target presentations. These effects were found to be the strongest for less urgent triage categories. However, the evidence on in- @entity1 length of stay was mixed. The results provide positive evidence that new workforce roles can be effective in improving the efficiency of emergency care delivery.
