Mapping Greener HealthcareMapping Greener Healthcare

Project Description

Background: The service utilisation of Emergency Eye Care (EEC) in the UK is unknown from the provision to number of patients using the services. It would be useful to service provision to know the allocation of resources such as staff type and workload burdens.

Approach: Through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, the project worked to understand the provision of EEC service in 108 hospitals within 101 trusts. Of these, 77% provide a booked service within working hours. On average, nearly 3 staff persons are allocated to EEC (ranging from 1 to 11). Staff can consist of consultants, nurse practitioners, and optometrists. About 31.7 patients are seen per day per EEC unit with about 3107 total in the UK. Almost 40% use electronic patient records, mostly through Medisoft.

Intended Benefits

Patient outcomes: By providing an overview of EEC provision, this can help inform efforts to improve patient outcomes related to access and provision of services.

Environmental, Financial, Social: Like patient outcomes, these findings help lay the groundwork for further investigation on how to reduce negative environmental, financial, and social impacts while increasing positive ones in EEC service.

Key Aspects of the Project

This project provided a foray into understanding EEC provision in the UK.