What does AADS mean in British Medicine?

Admission Avoidance & Discharge Services

The AADS is an integrated service which combines the following functions:-  Admission avoidance in ED with follow up in AAU and/or the community (7 days per week in ED from 8am to 7pm)  Hospital at home for medically optimised patients who need increased nursing / therapy support (e.g. for 2 weeks) to support prompt discharge from hospital (7 days per week from 8am to 6pm)  In-reach nursing team who work between wards and community health teams to facilitate discharge for patients with complex needs (7 days per week from 8am to 6pm)  Home support pathway or discharge assess, which enables patients to be discharged home for assessment of care needs with additional health & social care packages in place. This pathway includes providing CHC assessment in a person’s home where appropriate. (7 days per week from 8am to 6pm) The AADS team includes nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and social workers. The team is made up of both permanent and temporary employees due to the nature of the funding arrangements currently in place with the CCG. The AADS aims to:  Avoid unnecessary admissions for patients who attend the Emergency Department  Improve the transfer of care from the Royal London Hospital to community services  Facilitate discharge for patients who are expected to become clinically stable in the next 1-2 days and can be safely managed by community nurses with advanced clinical skills  Support patients who require further health/therapy assessments to go home as soon as they are medically stable  Support patients who require short term rehabilitation to return to their previous level of function Identifying patients for the AADS starts in the Emergency Department with patients identified by the admission avoidance team who can be safely discharged home and followed up in the community by therapies or other members of multi-disciplinary team (MDT). It will not always be possible to discharge all patients home and where this is the case, the AADS team follow the patient into the hospital ensuring that there discharge back home is planned from point of admission. Patients are identified from the wards by the in-patient therapy teams, who make direct referrals to AADS as well as by the nurse screeners who form part of the AADS team. The nurse screeners as well as the in-reach team work directly with wards to case find and identify patients suitable for the home support pathway. The nurse screeners & in-reach teams will also refer cases to CHC assessors where appropriate. The in-reach team attend daily board rounds on RLH, with their main focus being on the 11th , 13th & 14th floor, to enable them to work with ward teams to support the prompt discharge of patients home and identify additional cases for AADS. Clinical dialogue will take place if patients are already known to the CHTS/ specialist teams to ensure the right person sees the patient to support discharge. A member of the AADS team also attends the RLH daily safety huddle and at least one of the thrice daily capacity meetings to ensure all patients who will benefits from the AADS service are identified and referred to the team.

Medical » British Medicine