A range of new data-rich resources supporting acute and general medicine teams to transform services is now on offer from the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) team.
The Summary Acute Medicine Indicator Table (SAMIT) has now gone live. This overarching data dashboard is designed to identify unwarranted variation which is adversely affecting patient care and support centres to improve outcomes. More details below.
GIRFT has also added a new compartment of acute and general medicine data to the Model Health System (MHS), enabling clinicians to view up-to-date, benchmarked data at site, trust and system level.
The Summary Acute Medicine Indicator Table (SAMIT)
This new data dashboard provides a suite of 50 key metrics relevant to the acute medical patient pathway, for use by teams in Acute Medical Units (AMUs) and Same Day Emergency Care (SDECs) in England. It offers a deep understanding of an acute medical service, accounting for demand, capacity, processes, behaviours and performance, which all contribute to patient care and experiences.
Data in the SAMIT focuses on the activity and performance for patients aged 16 and over who are admitted acutely to 18 medical specialties. The dashboard recognises that AMUs operate within a wider system of primary, secondary, community and social care, and with variations in geography, demographics, case-mix, resources and practices.
The dashboard can be viewed at site or system level and includes an overview of key activity and resources (consultant and nursing numbers, physical bed availability) linked to capacity, helping to highlight gaps which might be impacting on the delivery of a service. It also includes an overall ranked patient flow score – the GIRFT Acute Medicine Index (GAMI).
Charts within the SAMIT display delays in the ED for medical admissions, weekly admissions and length of stay, and there are quadrants showing how a hospital compares to all other hospitals for performance across demand and capacity, flow and outcomes.
More details about the dashboard, including how to access the SAMIT, are available by clicking the button below.
Acute and general medicine metrics on the Model Health System
GIRFT metrics supporting acute and general medicine teams to benchmark their performance and help improve patient care have also now been added to the Model Health System (MHS).
For the first time, GIRFT has added site-level data to the MHS platform, meaning users can now drill down into site, trust and system-level data relating to acute medical conditions for which patients are commonly admitted – such as pneumonia, chest pain and pulmonary embolism.
The new compartment features more than 50 metrics on themes such as average length of stay and readmissions. Users can also compare the outcomes of patients admitted to their acute medical unit (AMU) in comparison to those admitted into alternative specialties.
GIRFT’s national report for acute and general medicine (April 2022) found significant variation in practice across many areas of the specialty and made recommendations to help trusts standardise patient care and aim for excellence to cope with increasing need from an ageing population.
The report showed that the number of non-elective internal medicine admissions to hospital has been increasing year on year for at least a decade. Between 2011 and 2020 there was a 29.7% increase (approximately 600,000 patients) and there are now around 2.5m emergency internal medicine admissions every year in England. More than 90% of inpatients on medical wards have been admitted as an emergency, most via the AMU.
The report recommended measures to improve data collection and clinical coding to help trusts gain a better understanding and monitor trends in demand and outcomes.
To access data for your site, provider or ICS, log in to https://model.nhs.uk/ and navigate to the general and acute medicine compartment.
