An Effective System to Measure and Report Quality Indicators in Acute Medical Units

An Effective System to Measure and Report Quality Indicators in Acute Medical Units

Abstract

The Society for Acute Medicine has developed a number of clinical quality indicators by which all UK Acute Medicine Units can bench mark their activity. These will help to ensure high quality care for patients, inform the continuing development of acute medical services and demonstrate the positive impact of this new speciality. Prospective collection of these data may be a challenge for many busy units. This paper describes a local solution developed in house in a North East hospital. It demonstrates how the data collected can be analysed to assess the effect of changes in consultant presence on the unit and also time taken for patients to be seen by a doctor. The limitations of the system and potential for future development are considered.

[download-attachments container="div" style="list" display_icon="1" display_count="1" display__size="0"]

References

  1. Scott I, Vaughan L, Bell D. Effectiveness of acute medical units in hospitals: a systematic review. International Journal for Quality in Health Care 2009; 21(6): 397–7.
  2. Royal College of Physicians. Census 2010: Acute medicine and general (internal) medicine http://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/sites/default/files/acute-medicine-and-general-internal-medicinecensus-2010_0.pdf (accessed on 10th June 2012)
  3. Acute Medicine Task Force. Acute medical care: The right person, in the right setting – first time. October 2007.
  4. Bell CM and Redelmeier DA. Mortality among patients admitted to hospitals on weekends as compared with weekdays. New England Journal of Medicine 2001; 345: 663–8.
  5. Society for Acute Medicine. Clinical Quality Indicators for Acute Medical Unit. http://www.acutemedicine.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=81:acutecare-quality-and-performance-indicators&catid=72:positionstatements&Itemid=30 (accessed on 10th June, 2012)
  6. Darzi A.V. High quality care for all: NHS Next Stage Review final report NHS. June 2008.
  7. Emergency Care Intensive Support Team (ECIST). Effective Approaches in Urgent and Emergency Care. November 2011.
  8. Dellinger RP, Levy MM, Carlet JM, et al. Surviving Sepsis Campaign: International guidelines for management of severe sepsis and septic shock. Critical Care Medicine 2008; 36: 296–327

Request Permissions

To request copyright permission to republish or share portions of our works, please visit Copyright Clearance Center’s (CCC) Marketplace website by clicking the button below:

Get Permission

An Effective System to Measure and Report Quality Indicators in Acute Medical Units

14th March 2016
PMID: 23476980
Authors Affiliations
J Atkinson ST7 Acute Medicine, City Hospitals Sunderland Foundation Trust
Lorna Barton ST Acute Medicine and Intensive Care, MRCP (Acute) Royal Victoria Hospital, Newcastle
Andrew Harrison Planning Manager North Tees Hospital
Nick Roper Consultant in Acute Medicine, North Tees Hospital

An Effective System to Measure and Report Quality Indicators in Acute Medical Units

Cite this article as:

Atkinson J, Barton L, Harrison A, Roper N. An effective system to measure and report quality indicators in acute medical units. Acute Med. 2012;11(4):210-5. PMID: 23476980.

An Effective System to Measure and Report Quality Indicators in Acute Medical Units

Share this article

Click the icon of the social media platform on which you would like to share this article.


Shopping Basket
Scroll to Top