Emergency Medicine and Acute Care

Introduction: Ambulatory Emergency Care (AEC) was introduced in 2012 via NHS Elect. St Helens & Knowsley Teaching Hospitals (STHK) was early adopters-cohort 3 in 2013. We are challenging the concept of emergency care-delivering same day care and avoiding admitting patients overnight unnecessarily. ED AEC worked closely with inpatient specialties to achieve this, through development of new protocols and clinics. Performance audits have shown reduction in time to be seen reduction in admission and decreased length of stay in hospital. STHK is an exemplar site for AEC, being one of only a few UK EDs to house AEC. To continue improving we decided to evaluate patient experience in AEC to gain the patient’s perspective of this new service. Method: A questionnaire involving one qualitative question and nine quantitative questions was distributed to patients. Data was collected over two months. Questions were based on STHK core standards (attitude, communication and experience). Results: Quantitative results provided ratings of excellent/good/average/poor/very poor. Qualitative results included patient’s comments. We had 80 responses: 80% excellent or very good feedback noted for staff  attitude, which involves staff  professionalism and delivery of care; patient experience showed 62% excellent or very good experience which involves length of stay, comfort, quality of care and feeling supported; communication shows 67% excellent or good which incorporates information provided to patients. Conclusion: Signifi cant positive feedback for care delivery and staff  professionalism with some areas for improvement. Action points that have been developed for the future are amended SOP to emphasize communication with the patient, patient information leafl ets, FAQ posters and improved signage. We plan to re-audit aft er implementation of changes.