Table 1

Rates of emergency department (ED) providers’ interruption sources and content

	Mean rate (SD)
Overall interruptions	8.70 (4.92)
Interruption sources (interruptions caused…)
by patients	0.92 (1.19)
by ED colleagues of the same profession	2.55 (2.39)
by ED colleagues of another profession	2.47 (2.13)
by telephone/beeper	1.79 (1.52)
by patient’s relatives	0.24 (0.49)
by technical malfunctions or missing supplies	0.42 (0.63)
by information impediments or problems	0.31 (0.60)
Interruption contents (interruption event related…)
to current case	1.82 (2.08)
to parallel case	2.86 (2.79)
to completed cases	0.79 (1.01)
to new (time-critical) cases	0.16 (0.45)
to coordination activities	1.92 (1.98)
to patient comfort	0.27 (0.56)