Triage physicians in an academic emergency department: Impact on resident education

Background Overcrowding in emergency departments (EDs) in the United States has been linked to worse patient outcomes. Implementation of countermeasures such as a physician‐in‐triage (PIT) system have improved patient care and decreased wait times. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how a PIT system affects medical resident education in an academic ED. Methods This was a retrospective observational comparison of resident metrics at a single‐site, urban, academic ED before and after implementing a PIT system. Resident metrics of average emergency severity index (ESI), patients‐per‐hour, and in‐training‐examination scores were measured before and six months after the implementation of the PIT system. Results In total, 18,231 patients were evaluated by all residents in the study period before PIT implementation compared to 17,008 in the study period following PIT implementation. The average ESI among patients evaluated by residents decreased from 3.00 to 2.68 (p