News
‘Exit block’ affects half a million a year Crowding caused by lack of beds is putting patients’ lives at risk, claims College of Emergency Medicine
Call for extra funding to employ more alcohol health workers LIAISON NURSES need more financial support to tackle unhealthy drinking, according to researchers at Leeds Metropolitan University and the University of York. A study funded by Alcohol Research UK reveals that, while many hospitals employ specialist staff to help service users with alcohol problems, the work is often underfunded. Alcohol Research UK director of research and policy development James Nicholls said: ‘The government’s strategy identifies hospital-based specialists as key to tackling problems. It is important that this role is adequately supported.’ Leeds Metropolitan University researcher Sarah Baker said that financial and managerial support is crucial to ensure these positions have appropriate resources.
In June, the college published guidance called Crowding in EDs to help trusts to implement the right measures. The document states that EDs should be able to measure how crowded they are, for example by recording how long it takes for ambulances to deliver patients and how many patients require trolleys. It defines a crowded ED as one in which more than 10% of patients wait more than two hours from the decision to admit to when they leave the ED for inpatient care. Trigger points The guidance also states that hospitals with EDs should have escalation policies with agreed ‘trigger points’ for when the EDs are crowded.
Urgent care staff to share patient data with police EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTS (EDs) in England will be expected to share with the police non-confidential information about attendances that involve violent crime, under a standard coming into force next year. The Health and Social Care Information Centre standard, Information Sharing to Tackle Violence, will require ED staff to collect aggregated data about attendees who have
been injured. Information to be collected includes incident date and time, location of incident and primary means of assault. Staff will then be expected to share the data with community safety partnerships, which represent organisations such as the police and the probation service. ■■ The standard can be accessed at tinyurl.com/n9wdqf4
Rex Features Rex
By Jennifer Sprinks OVERCROWDING IN emergency departments (EDs) must be addressed urgently to ensure patients waiting to be admitted to wards are not put at risk, the College of Emergency Medicine (CEM) has warned. The college is concerned that more than 500,000 patients every year are affected by ‘exit block’, when nurses and doctors struggle to admit them to hospital. The CEM is calling on hospital chief executives and their boards to tackle the issue urgently. CEM president Clifford Mann said: ‘When A&Es become crowded because of exit block, patients do less well. We know that crowding kills. It is simply not acceptable to let this situation continue.’
The Society for Acute Medicine (SAM) backed the CEM and added that that exit block is caused by a lack of beds, particularly in acute medical units. According to SAM, occupancy rates that exceed 100% rather than the optimum 85% are ‘associated with increased length of stay and mortality’. Meanwhile, the CEM has joined the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) in drawing up standardised ED attendance data to highlight the burden of accidents on emergency care. Accidents represent a major cause of the 21 million ED attendances in England each year. RoSPA chief executive Tom Mullarkey said: ‘With one in 40 of us likely to die in an accident and one in ten receiving at least one serious injury during our life, it is clear that action is needed.’ See analysis, page 8
i Find out more The Alcohol Research UK study is available at tinyurl.com/I7pfopl EMERGENCY NURSE
October 2014 | Volume 22 | Number 6
Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Dec 08, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
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‘Exit block’ affects half a million a year Crowding caused by lack of beds is putting patients’ lives at risk, claims College of Emergency Medicine
Call for extra funding to employ more alcohol health workers LIAISON NURSES need more financial support to tackle unhealthy drinking, according to researchers at Leeds Metropolitan University and the University of York. A study funded by Alcohol Research UK reveals that, while many hospitals employ specialist staff to help service users with alcohol problems, the work is often underfunded. Alcohol Research UK director of research and policy development James Nicholls said: ‘The government’s strategy identifies hospital-based specialists as key to tackling problems. It is important that this role is adequately supported.’ Leeds Metropolitan University researcher Sarah Baker said that financial and managerial support is crucial to ensure these positions have appropriate resources.
In June, the college published guidance called Crowding in EDs to help trusts to implement the right measures. The document states that EDs should be able to measure how crowded they are, for example by recording how long it takes for ambulances to deliver patients and how many patients require trolleys. It defines a crowded ED as one in which more than 10% of patients wait more than two hours from the decision to admit to when they leave the ED for inpatient care. Trigger points The guidance also states that hospitals with EDs should have escalation policies with agreed ‘trigger points’ for when the EDs are crowded.
Urgent care staff to share patient data with police EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTS (EDs) in England will be expected to share with the police non-confidential information about attendances that involve violent crime, under a standard coming into force next year. The Health and Social Care Information Centre standard, Information Sharing to Tackle Violence, will require ED staff to collect aggregated data about attendees who have
been injured. Information to be collected includes incident date and time, location of incident and primary means of assault. Staff will then be expected to share the data with community safety partnerships, which represent organisations such as the police and the probation service. ■■ The standard can be accessed at tinyurl.com/n9wdqf4
Rex Features Rex
By Jennifer Sprinks OVERCROWDING IN emergency departments (EDs) must be addressed urgently to ensure patients waiting to be admitted to wards are not put at risk, the College of Emergency Medicine (CEM) has warned. The college is concerned that more than 500,000 patients every year are affected by ‘exit block’, when nurses and doctors struggle to admit them to hospital. The CEM is calling on hospital chief executives and their boards to tackle the issue urgently. CEM president Clifford Mann said: ‘When A&Es become crowded because of exit block, patients do less well. We know that crowding kills. It is simply not acceptable to let this situation continue.’
The Society for Acute Medicine (SAM) backed the CEM and added that that exit block is caused by a lack of beds, particularly in acute medical units. According to SAM, occupancy rates that exceed 100% rather than the optimum 85% are ‘associated with increased length of stay and mortality’. Meanwhile, the CEM has joined the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) in drawing up standardised ED attendance data to highlight the burden of accidents on emergency care. Accidents represent a major cause of the 21 million ED attendances in England each year. RoSPA chief executive Tom Mullarkey said: ‘With one in 40 of us likely to die in an accident and one in ten receiving at least one serious injury during our life, it is clear that action is needed.’ See analysis, page 8
i Find out more The Alcohol Research UK study is available at tinyurl.com/I7pfopl EMERGENCY NURSE
October 2014 | Volume 22 | Number 6
Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Dec 08, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
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