The e-Health Research Centre is developing software to tackle emergency department bottlenecks.

A$300,000 Grant to tackle emergency department bottlenecks

Reference: 07/197

Reducing delays and bottlenecks in public hospital emergency departments is the aim of a newly funded project at the e-Health Research Centre (EHRC).

• 3 October 2007

The EHRC, a joint venture between CSIRO and the Queensland Government, will receive A$300,000 to undertake development and pilot testing of a National Emergency Department Patient Admissions Prediction Tool.

Announcing the grant, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said that the coordination of bed allocation is a significant challenge confronting the emergency departments of many Queensland hospitals.

“At present there is no off-the-shelf software in Australia that allows hospitals to properly predict the in and out flow of patients and monitor the up-to-date usage of hospital beds,” Ms Bligh said.

Chief Executive Officer of the e-Health Research Centre, Gary Morgan, said that the software will be designed with the real needs of hospital workers in mind.

“Our goal is always to ensure that research outcomes are translated to practical improvements for the health system,” Mr Morgan said.

“This means that the tool will enable workers to rapidly assess bed availability to meet current demand without significantly changing their other work practices.

“CSIRO excels at both advanced mathematical modelling and human factors in software design.”

Ms Bligh said that a pilot study involving clinicians at the Gold Coast Hospital emergency department has demonstrated that it is possible to predict the likely number of admissions for any given day.

“The project will be undertaken over 12 months and will include testing of the new software in two hospitals – Gold Coast Hospital and Toowoomba Hospital,” she said.

“As well as decreasing overcrowding in emergency departments, it aims to reduce the regular by-passing of ambulances to other hospitals due to unforeseen demand.

“It also has enormous potential to be implemented in other Australian hospitals.”

The project is a joint undertaking between the EHRC, the Department of State Development, Queensland Health, Griffith University and the Queensland University of Technology.

A leading national research facility in ICT for healthcare innovations, the EHRC is key ICT research initiative of the Queensland Government under its Smart State Strategy.

“The EHRC brings together world-class researchers and industry to produce products and services to create social and economic benefits for all Australians,” Ms Bligh said.

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