Filenews 9 January 2025 - by Marilena Panayi
The Accident and Emergency Departments are also under the continuous evaluation of patients and, in fact, the score that the beneficiaries of the General Health System will give through a questionnaire will also be taken into account for the calculation of the compensation of hospitals in which TAEP operate. A total of seven quality criteria are included in the plan prepared by the HIO and concerns, this time, all GHS TAPs.
The waiting time of patients from the moment of their first registration until the moment of their departure, as well as the time that will elapse between the triage process and the service of patients, will also be taken into account for reimbursement purposes, while regardless of quality criteria, the HIO proposes changes to its relevant circulars to make the presence of doctors of specific specialties in all TAEP mandatory and at the same time ensure that employees in the Accident and Emergency Departments have the necessary training.
The plan is currently under discussion between the HIO and the various competent bodies in order to make, if necessary, all the necessary variations, additions, etc. before finalizing it and forwarding it for implementation. "After more than a year of operation and private TAEP within the GHS, it is logical, and this must always be done, for the Organization, after the proper evaluation of the data, to proceed, where and where necessary, to improvements or other interventions," HIO senior officer Monika Kyriacou told F. In this context, he said, "we have promoted the process in cooperation with the affected providers and our goal is soon to have a final result and proceed with the implementation of a specific plan of quality criteria for the TAEPs as well."
At the same time, with the draft quality criteria, the HIO, Kyriacou said, is also proceeding with the activation of a provision already included in the circular (on the basis of which the TAEP operates within the GHS) but its implementation was initially suspended due to the pandemic and the inability of hospitals to respond. This provision is related to the obligation of TAEP to have specialized personnel in emergency management.
Also, the HIO promotes the inclusion in this circular of another provision which, this time, will concern the availability of doctors of various specialties. Specifically, the HIO promotes a provision that will impose, first, the availability on a 24-hour basis of doctors who hold the specialty of pathology, cardiology, general surgery, orthopaedics and radiology and, second, the availability on a daily basis of doctors of at least one of the specialties of neurology, paediatrics, intensive care, radiology (with the possibility of performing interventional radiology operations).
Regarding the application of quality criteria, the plan prepared by the HIO includes:
>> Evaluation of services by patients themselves. Patients will receive a questionnaire (as is the case with inpatient care), through which they will score the GDP that served them.
>> Recording of the time from the moment of registration of the beneficiary until its evaluation by the screening team. (The software will include relevant fields that must be filled in).
>> Recording of the total time of stay of the beneficiary in the ICF. That is, from the moment of their arrival until their discharge or admission to a hospital ward.
>> Recording of the time from the arrival of the ambulance until the receipt of the patient by the staff of the Emergency Department and the release of the ambulance.
>> Recording of the percentage of patients in relation to the total number of patients enrolled in the Emergency Departments for the period under evaluation, who leave before or after triage without being managed by the Department.
>> Recording of the percentage of patients, in relation to the total number of patients enrolled in the TAEP during the period under evaluation, who visit any TAEP within 72 hours of their previous visit.
>> Registration of the members of the screening team who have completed the necessary training by a competent training body.
The results will be evaluated every six months and will be taken into account in the calculation of the compensation of the Emergency Department per hospital.
