3/15/12 Research Protocol

I will be interviewing Dr. Stevan Vuckovic, the assistant director of the emergency room at St. Anthony’s.  I will call in advance to schedule an appointment to request an interview.  Dr. Vuckovic is in his office two days a week, so I will try to get an appointment on a day that he has some free time.  I am conducting this interview in order to determine if the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) has had an effect on emergency departments in the area.  I will ask questions that determine if overcrowding and shortages of health care professionals have occurred in this specific emergency room.  While visiting the emergency department, I can also observe how busy the department seems, as well as note how busy the waiting room is.  I will prepare for this interview in advance by composing a list of questions that will determine if my thesis is correct.  I will then ask these questions as well as questions that are posed by Dr. Vuckovic’s answers.

           

From this primary research I hope to learn how the PPACA effects emergency departments in the eyes of a physician.  Physicians know the inner workings of the emergency department, so insight from this point of view will be very valuable to my research.  I also hope to determine if the passing of the first few components of the bill has had any noticeable effects thus far.  I can compare findings from previous years to recent times in order to determine the effects.  Finally, I hope to learn how the standards of patient care have been affected by recent changes due to the PPACA.

Questions I will ask:

1.  Have you noticed any significant overall changes in the emergency department since the passing of the PPACA?  What are they?
2.  Has overcrowding become more apparent since the passing of the PPACA?
3.  Have you noticed more patients on Medicaid visiting the emergency room?
4. How often do you treat patients who come to the emergency room in place of a doctor visit?   Has this number increased recently?
5.  How has the wait time to be seen been affected?
6. Are shortages of health care professionals prevalent?
7. Has the level of care that patients receive been altered in any way?  How so?
8. What effects do you expect after the full integration of the PPACA for emergency medicine overall?
9.  How do you think the running of emergency departments will change?
10.  Do you believe that the PPACA will result in a positive outcome for emergency medicine?  Why or why not?