We have located links that may give you full text access.
The impact of a surgical assessment unit on numbers of general surgery outliers.
New Zealand Medical Journal 2016 December 3
AIMS: Patient care and efficiency outcomes are improved if acute patients admitted to non-specialty (outlier) wards are minimised.1 Assessment units may help to reduce numbers of outlier patients.2 A surgical assessment unit (SAU) was recently established at Middlemore Hospital. We aimed to determine the impact of its introduction on numbers of general surgery outliers on post-acute ward rounds.
METHODS: A 10-bed SAU was introduced in July 2015, coinciding with the closure of 20 beds on the general surgical wards. The numbers and locations of patients on post-acute ward rounds before and after the establishment of the SAU were compared. A student two-tailed t-test was used for statistical comparisons, with p<0.05 considered significant.
RESULTS: A total of 1,462 patient locations were analysed from 71 post-acute ward rounds. There were similar overall numbers of post-acute patients before and after the introduction of the SAU (mean 21 vs 20, p=0.33). There were fewer post-acute patients in outlier wards after the introduction of the SAU (mean 1.7 before vs 0.8 after, p=0.04).
CONCLUSION: Despite a net reduction in general surgery beds and no change in the overall number of post-acute patients, the establishment of a SAU was associated with a reduction in outliers.
METHODS: A 10-bed SAU was introduced in July 2015, coinciding with the closure of 20 beds on the general surgical wards. The numbers and locations of patients on post-acute ward rounds before and after the establishment of the SAU were compared. A student two-tailed t-test was used for statistical comparisons, with p<0.05 considered significant.
RESULTS: A total of 1,462 patient locations were analysed from 71 post-acute ward rounds. There were similar overall numbers of post-acute patients before and after the introduction of the SAU (mean 21 vs 20, p=0.33). There were fewer post-acute patients in outlier wards after the introduction of the SAU (mean 1.7 before vs 0.8 after, p=0.04).
CONCLUSION: Despite a net reduction in general surgery beds and no change in the overall number of post-acute patients, the establishment of a SAU was associated with a reduction in outliers.
Full text links
Related Resources
Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university
For the best experience, use the Read mobile app
All material on this website is protected by copyright, Copyright © 1994-2024 by WebMD LLC.
This website also contains material copyrighted by 3rd parties.
By using this service, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.
Your Privacy Choices
You can now claim free CME credits for this literature searchClaim now
Get seemless 1-tap access through your institution/university
For the best experience, use the Read mobile app