What are the A&E clinical quality indicators?

In May 2011 the Department of Health replaced the existing four hour A&E waiting time target with a number of clinical quality indicators, including total time spent in the Emergency Department. 

The new indicators intend to improve patient experience and the effectiveness of care they receive over time.

Emergency Department

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) sees over 100,000 patients a year in its Emergency Department which moved to the state-of-the-art Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) in June 2010. 

Of the 8,500 patients the Emergency Department sees each month, around a third (34%) arrive by emergency ambulance and 29% require admission to hospital. 

As a regional centre for trauma, burns and plastics and neurosurgery, UHB’s Emergency Department treats patients with a wide range of often complex conditions.

Performance

NHS trusts started measuring performance against the clinical quality indicators in May 2011, UHB is focusing on gradually improving performance over time. 

Improving performance for some of the indicators will rely on better and more timely data capture to demonstrate the care and treatment already being given.

The department has seen improvements in all quality indicators and the challenge is to sustain improvement whilst ensuring further inroads are made into time to treatment indicators.

UHB performance data will be updated at the end of each month for the numerical indicators and include data up to the end of the previous month.