Our Acute Assessment Unit (AAU) receives admissions into the hospital from our Emergency Department (ED), primary care, such as GPS, and from the community, including paramedic referrals.
The unit cares for patients with vast and varying acute health needs from all specialities, although we are not a specialist mental health ward.
AAU is a fast-paced environment that takes admissions and the transfer of patients all day, every day.
It is a specialised area for rapid assessment, diagnostics, treatment, observations, and discharge of patients who attend via an emergency referral.
A typical journey through AAU consists of:
- Assessments and Care Plans completed by a registered nurse within 2 hours of arrival
- Medical assessment within 4 hours of arrival
- Consultant review within 14 hours of arrival
- Daily multi-disciplinary team (MDT) board rounds twice a day, with speciality doctors / practitioners visiting throughout the day if required
AAU has a 24-hour maximum length of stay. Within this time, a decision will be made on the most appropriate place of care for the patient’s diagnosis and treatment plan. The clinical site team will be informed of the patient’s appropriate place of care at the earliest opportunity – this will be updated on the electronic system with the pathway level. It’s the responsibility of the clinical site team to inform AAU of the specific time of transfer and the receiving clinical area of any details pertinent to the transfer (infection control issues, close supervision requirements, specialist equipment required)
Once an in-patient bed is allocated by the clinical site team, the patient will be transferred within 15 minutes and a face-to-face handover will be given to the clinical area on transfer. No telephone handover will be given prior to transfer.
