From: Variation in resource allocation in urgent and emergency Care Systems in Ireland
Service | Details of data collected |
---|---|
Pre-hospital Expenditure | |
General Practice: Activity, Funding and Staffing | • Claims through the Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS) categorised as ‘Emergency’ and ‘Out of Hours’ were taken to represent urgent and emergency cases [15]. Expenditure related to these claims is also reported by the PCRS. • GP and practice nursing workforce figures were reported in a recent study [16]. • Data on workforce employed by GP co-operatives were gathered through surveys sent to the General Manager of each practice (response rate = 90%). • Additional data on healthcare service utilisation taken from the Quarterly National Household Survey [17] were used to estimate GP and practice nurse staffing and non-medical card activity and expenditure |
Ambulance Services: Activity, Funding and Staffing | • Data on ambulance staffing was provided by the National Ambulance Service [18, 19], Dublin Fire Brigade, the Health Service Executive and Health Information and Quality Authority [20]. |
In-Hospital Expenditure | |
Public ED and LIU: Activity, Funding and Staffing | • Public ED and LIU expenditure data were provided by the Health Service Executive’s (HSE) Healthcare Pricing Office (HPO). • Overall Hospital expenditure data were extracted from the HSE Management Data report [21]. • Surveys designed to collect additional data on ED and LIU consultant, non-consultant hospital doctor and nursing staffing levels were posted to all hospitals (Response rate = 33%). Secondary sources were used to supplement the survey data [22, 23]. • Presentations at each public ED and LIU were extracted from the HSE Data Management report [21]. |
Private ED and LIU: Activity, Funding and Staffing | • Data on consultant staffing and activity in private EDs were estimated by the HSE, based on contractual agreements with consultants around the split between public and private work. • Data on the number of presentations at private LIUs were used to estimate resources used in private clinics [22]. |
County of Residence: Utilisation | • The patient’s county of residence in relation to each ED and LIU presentation was extracted from the Hospital In-Patient Enquiry Scheme, held by the HPO. |
Population Estimates | |
County and Regional | • All population data were taken from the 2011 Census [13]. |