Acute Assessment Unit
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[edit] The Department
An Acute Assessment Unit, or Acute Admissions Unit, often abbreviated to AAU is a short-stay department in a UK hopsital which is part of the Accident & Emergency department. The Acute Assessment Unit acts as a gateway between a patient's GP, A&E and the wards of the hospital.
From A&E, patients can be moved to AAU where they will undergo further tests and stabalisation before they are transferred to the relevant ward or sent home. An AAU is usually made up of several bays and has a small number of side-rooms and treatment rooms. They are fully equipped with emergency medical treatment facilities including defibrilators and resusitation equipment.
AAUs are relatively new to the UK hospital system and have only been introduced within the last 5 years or so, meaning there are only a small number of hospitals with this facility at present.
[edit] Staff
Senior staff in an AAU include a Consultant in Emergency Medicine, a Registrar in Emergency Medicine, and Ward Sister or Charge Nurse. Other staff who work in the AAU include Staff Nurses, and often members of staff from other areas of the hospital who are needed in the AAU, for example a Cardiothoracic Consultant may attend AAU to assess a patient who has suffered a heart attack.
[edit] Other Information
Different hospitals use different names for the department - common names for this department are:
- Acute Assessment Unit (most common)
- Acute Admissions Unit
- Acute Medical Assessment Unit
- Acute Medical Admissions Unit
- Acute Injuries Unit/Department
