Accident and Emergency Departments - Essay Example

Aharonson et al (1996) provided information on patterns of services, arrival, and factors influencing queuing in A&E departments and suggested that there are potential benefits for management and applying operations research methods in clinical environments. A&E departments are in considerable demand and proper utilization of these services can lead to improvement in the quality and promptness of clinical services offered.

However contrary to Chow’s arguments, several hospital emergency departments may be directly related to primary care in providing rapid access and an emergency care network could be established in primary care as well. Integrating the strengths and weaknesses of emergency care with an objective data model could help in describing multiple levels of operation and in highlighting process efficiency and clinical effectiveness. The support systems within NHS Direct have shown how people do things within A&E departments especially and how deliberate and thoughtful care could be provided by improving network operations. Accident and emergency departments and networking can help measure and control effective networking and promote interactions.

The recent strategic policy shift towards a primary care-led National Health Service in the UK (Department of Health, 1994) has led to renewed interest in redefining the boundaries between primary and secondary care to shift selected services traditionally provided in the acute hospital to less resource-intensive primary and community-based alternatives.

This systematic literature review looks at the potential for effective service provision for young A & E patients at mixed A & Es in the UK. The UK has experienced a rapid increase in gene practitioners out of hour’s co-operatives over the last 5 years. More generally, a government of emergency pre-hospital care in England and Wales recently resulted in a series of pilot schemes to test interventions such as computer-driven telephone triage and advice (Department of Health 1997). Such developments are not surprising. Hospital emergency services are under increasing pressure as emergency  admissions rise, (Capewell 1996) junior staffing levels are constrained, (Department of Health 1995) and long-term trends in  accident and emergency  (A & E) attendance remain high.