West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven, England has extended its Emergency Assessment Unit to enhance patient care and experience.
Named Same Day Emergency Care unit, the £1.5m extension includes an ambulatory care area, procedure room and assessment unit that will run for 23 hours.
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The new unit is expected to treat and discharge 60-70% of patients from the assessment unit after being examined and not hospitalised. It is set to accept patients from 26 May 2021.
West Cumberland Hospital anticipates that its extension will improve the experience for patients being examined to decide on their treatment plan.
Same Day Emergency Care unit ward manager Nichola Mitchinson said: “We’re thrilled with the new extension; we now have a dedicated, dynamic offering for patients with state-of-the-art equipment which will allow for us to build upon the service we were already providing through the Same Day Emergency Care model.
“Patients will be assessed by a team of clinical decision makers who will decide on the right course of action there and then. We’re hoping this will reduce admissions into the hospital and also allow our staff to be more efficient, due to the reduction in unnecessary admissions.”
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By GlobalDataThe new ambulatory care area is meant to allow the new unit and staff to better collaborate with the Emergency Assessment team and improve patient care.
Nichola noted: “It’s great that Ambulatory Care will now operate alongside the team on the assessment unit it makes perfect sense for us to work closely together and will only benefit our patients.”
The hospital is also developing a Rapid Assessment & Treatment Room as part of its Accident & Emergency department to facilitate better patient flow.
Furthermore, an additional £40m is being invested to upgrade the environment and facilities at the hospital. Ground work has commenced and building work is expected to start in January next year.
