New check-in tablets brought into East Sussex A&E departments to reduce waiting times
e-triage will be used by patients to ensure they get the right help they need, and quicker
A new tool to help us speed up the assessment process in emergency departments across East Sussex has been launched.
eTriage helps East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust to identify what patients need quickly, reducing waiting times and improving the experience for patients. Patients arriving at our emergency departments will be asked to check-in using our new eTriage tablets. The tablets ask a series of simple questions to enable us to assess everyone and see the most urgent patients first.
Paul Cloves, Head of Emergency Care, said: “Our priority is to provide timely and appropriate urgent and emergency care. eTriage will enable us to see which patients need our care much earlier than our current process allows, while also reducing waiting times and improving the privacy afforded to our patients.”
eTriage has been developed by clinicians to check-in and assess patients arriving in emergency departments. eTriage books the patient in and triages them to the correct clinician based on their medical need, highlighting those who present with the most urgent conditions to ensure they are seen first.
If an emergency department is not the right place to care for you, you will be booked an appointment with your GP or another appropriate healthcare professional there and then.
Paul said: “If you attend our Emergency Department or Urgent Treatment Centre but do not require urgent or emergency care, we will advise you of an alternative healthcare provider that can better meet your needs.”
The NHS Trust hope that patients will find the tablets simple to use, however, reception teams will still be on hand to support with the check-in process, answer any questions or help to check in any patients who are unable to use the system themselves.
The new system will speed up the book in time for patients, with most patients taking an average of four minutes from arrival to check-in.