I suspect that the principle of “see and treat” requires a patient to
doctor/nurse ratio very low.
It is, in fact, a perfect system when you have just a couple of patients
with very minor things in the waiting room, of a clean, empty ED. Then you
“see and treat” them quickly and they save time (not a lot, though).
The lenght of time patients spend waiting (to see doctors, nurses, have
X-rays, etc) becomes a "problem" when the Department is busy.
Unfortunately, often patients tend to arrive in clusters, and not all of
them are so “minors” as to take a few minutes for a prescription, a
dressing or just to be told to go somewhere else. Abd you will still have
major and resus cases to deal with. If your resources are still the same
(and I mean limited), I fear that “see and treat” will not improve things
that much and, if anything, might make them worse (or at least more
chaotic).
M. Della Corte
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