Impact of Physician Navigators: Looking beyond productivity metrics and silver bullets

Authors’ response to ‘Impact of physician navigators: looking beyond productivity metrics and silver bullets’ by Leunget al

“…We would like to thank Dr Leung et al 1 and the editors for the opportunity to engage in further discussion on the issues presented in our commentary entitled ‘Tackling the demand for emergency department services: there are no silver bullets’ 2. We believe that the intervention proposed by Leung et al 3 demonstrated improved timeliness to definitive patient care and was an important contribution to the medical literature around emergency department (ED) flow optimisation.…”

“…The authors offer additional commentary regarding various ‘non-tangible’ benefits associated with physician navigators, such as time with the patient, and opportunity for bedside teaching and having meals on shifts 1. We do not doubt that such benefits may exist, but the extent to which such benefits were realised cannot be known, as they were not measured.…”

“…Future applications of this and other QI work should apply robust methodologies, quantify reduction in physician workload, and assess plausible downstream effects of the proposed intervention to offer better insights into its broader adoptability. We should look at the work by Leung et al 1 not as an answer to the problem of timely ED care, but as a step in the right direction to developing an efficient system of delivery that meets the needs of patients.…”