Physicians to patient ratio in the accident and emergency department of Salmaniya Medical Centre

Abstract EN

The average annual number of patients seen in Accident and Emergency (A/E) Department in Salmaniya Medical Centre (SMC) is 170,293, and the average time spent by the SMC A/E physician is 10.45 minutes/patient.

The purpose of this study is to ealeu-late the optimal number of physicians needed to look after these patients using the Bahrain Civil Service Bureau formula.

Our figures indicated a need for a minimum of 33 physicians, but the Department is now run on 16 doctors only.

One of the most difficult questions to answer in emergency medicine is “How many physicians on an average do we need to cover our emergency depart-ment”? The answer to this question is complex and depends on many factors such as the qualifications and experience of the emergency physicians, the patients flow, the philosophic attitude towards treatment of