A commonly occurring question from our AEC Network membership is how to accurately and most usefully measure AEC activity - episodes of care in AEC units do not fit neatly into the current national guidance on how to record patient activity.
In early 2015, we therefore started the process of developing a new national dataset for AEC, not aware that at the same time, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine had been tasked with creating a new patient level dataset for EDs the
ECDS. By combining the two pieces of work, the AEC dataset is now being taken forward as an integrated part of the overall ECDS, with the project being led by an HSCIC cross-government team.
The ECDS will be piloted as part of a proposed two phase approach. Starting last month phase one is collecting ECDS data items in a live situation from 2 EDs, focusing on small numbers of patients (1000 records max) and will last approximately four weeks. Non-patient identifiable data is collected using a specially designed tablet app, with the patient being followed (with consent) through their AEC journey, data being recorded as they progress through the system.
The second phase is likely to commence in June/July and will expand to include a wider range of sites. This is where we are looking for AEC network members to volunteer to participate.
We need to have AEC Network members represented in the second phase of piloting to ensure that the dataset really does work for capturing AEC activity in an accurate and useful way. Any sites with well-developed AEC services that are interested and can commit to taking part in this very important pilot should contact
aec@nhselect.org.uk by 13th May 2016.
Further information on the ECDS overall is contained below in the first edition of the new ECDS newsletter and is also being hosted on the NHS England website
here.