Regional surveillance of accident and emergency department attendances: experiences from the West Midlands

Amy Downing, Richard Wilson

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

    3 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Information is collected on every patient that attends accident and emergency (AIE). However, there is currently no central collection of these data. In 1999 it was decided to collect data on all AIE attendances in the West Midlands region. All 21 hospitals with 24 h AIE departments were asked to submit data to the Surveillance Centre at the University of Birmingham. To date, 19 hospitals have submitted data but the formats vary leading to a substantial amount of data processing. There are several limitations to the data set, for example a lack of information on the reasons for attendance. Despite this, routinely collected AIE data have great potential for surveillance and the data have been used in original research and to guide local policy. The West Midlands system is the largest source of AIE data in the United Kingdom. This information is of use to a wide range of organizations.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)82-84
    Number of pages3
    JournalJournal of Public Health
    Volume27
    Issue number1
    Publication statusPublished - 31 Jul 2005

    Keywords

    • data sets
    • accident and emergency
    • surveillance

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