Hospitals have increased the use of mid-level providers to perform initial triaging of emergent call events to reduce the on-call physician’s burden of coverage. However, the following factors still make it difficult to maintain adequate coverage, according to the report.
1. Physician work-life balance
2. A decrease in the supply of physicians
3. Fundamental shifts from care provided in hospital settings to ambulatory surgery centers
4. Aging physicians relying on staff by-laws to opt out of call coverage
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