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Acute Medicine Programme To Target Savings of 500,000 Bed days used
As the health services move though a period of significant change against the backdrop of reduced funding, a crucial element in the drive for better outcomes for patients and greater efficiency of resources is the Clinical Programmes. Led by Dr Barry White, and comprising over 30 separate programmes, the Clinical Programmes have enhanced the Clinical Leadership across the hospital sector and are well advanced in establishing a new level of effectiveness in the use of resources to the benefit of patients.
For a full list of the clinical programmes please follow this Internet link
http://www.hse.ie/eng/about/Who/clinical/natclinprog/
Among the key clinical programmes is the Acute Medicine Programme (AMP) which is radically changing the manner in which hospitals deal with incoming unscheduled patients. An old model of an Emergency Department, in which there is insufficient differentiation between the really sick and the less sick, is the way of the past. However with the roll-out of the Acute Medicine Programme, patients will be dealt with under a number of different ‘streams’ into a hospital.
The AMP is a new way of working with patients who present with urgent or emergency medical illnesses and is being introduced to all acute hospitals in Ireland.
The programme improves the patient experience and safety and eases access for acutely ill medical patients while increasing efficiency and saving costs. The AMP streams these medical patients away from crowded Emergency Departments to purpose – designed areas for rapid investigation and treatment, which are called Acute Medical Units.
The AMP has also developed and introduced a National Early Warning Score (NEWS) which will “track and trigger” a medical response to a deterioration in a patient’s clinical state. This response may include further investigations and treatment and transfer to a more appropriate care setting.
The AMP is being introduced in at least 18 hospitals in 2012 and in all other hospitals in 2013, with a target to save 500,000 bed days used (BDUs), which is equivalent to 1,300 beds.