Outcomes of Establishing an Urgent Care Centre in the Same Location as an Emergency DepartmentShow others and affiliations
2020 (English)In: Sustainability, E-ISSN 2071-1050, Vol. 12, no 19, article id 8190Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
The emergency department (ED) is one of the busiest facilities in a hospital, and it is frequently described as a bottleneck that limits space and structures, jeopardising surge capacity during Major Incidents and Disasters (MIDs) and pandemics such as the COVID 19 outbreak. One remedy to facilitate surge capacity is to establish an Urgent Care Centre (UCC), i.e., a secondary ED, co-located and in close collaboration with an ED. This study investigates the outcome of treatment in an ED versus a UCC in terms of length of stay (LOS), time to physician (TTP) and use of medical services. If it was possible to make these parameters equal to or even less than the ED, UCCs could be used as supplementary units to the ED, improving sustainability. The results show reduced waiting times at the UCC, both in terms of TTP and LOS. In conclusion, creating a primary care-like facility in close proximity to the hospitals may not only relieve overcrowding of the hospital's ED in peacetime, but it may also provide an opportunity for use during MIDs and pandemics to facilitate the victims of the incident and society as a whole.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
MPDI , 2020. Vol. 12, no 19, article id 8190
Keywords [en]
urgent care centre; emergency department; length of stay; surge capacity; Sweden
National Category
Nursing Health Care Service and Management, Health Policy and Services and Health Economy
Research subject
NURSING AND PUBLIC HEALTH SCIENCE, Public health science; SOCIAL SCIENCE, Social work
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hv:diva-15991DOI: 10.3390/su12198190ISI: 000586382200001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85092601170OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hv-15991DiVA, id: diva2:1478011
Note
This article belongs to the Special Issue Emergencies and Public Health Crisis Management- Current Perspectives on Risks and Multiagency Collaboration.
2020-10-212020-10-212021-04-29Bibliographically approved