Briefing / Ambulatory emergency care

To create a better understanding of the current approaches taken to the recording and reimbursement of ambulatory care, the HFMA's National Payment Systems Group is looking at the situation as part of its work programme. Consequently, the HFMA surveyed its members to establish some basic benchmarking information to see how the guidance is currently applied.

The survey revealed the following key points:

• Although only a small number of organisations responded, all parts of England were represented
• Half of respondents operate ambulatory emergency care with an agreed local price and half used the national price
• The way that first attendances are recorded is split evenly across:
  • Non-elective emergency admission
  • Mixture of A&E attendance and emergency admission
  • Outpatient first appointment
  • Outpatient follow-up appointment
• 69% of respondents record a second visit as an outpatient follow-up appointment

Respondents agreed that that the current arrangements need to change.