Emergency care
Emergency departments (EDs) are dedicated hospital-based facilities specifically designed and staffed to provide 24 hour emergency care. The role of the ED is to diagnose and treat acute and urgent illnesses and injuries. Patients are seen in order of medical urgency with non-urgent patients being seen after more acute patients.
On arrival in the ED, patients are assessed by a clinician and given a triage score. A triage score is a ranking from one to five (one being the most urgent and five being non-urgent) used to prioritise or classify patients on the basis of illness or injury severity and need for medical and nursing care. During the treatment phase of their time in ED patients are assessed by a clinician and assigned a diagnosis with treatment provided, if required.
Public hospitals in Australia group patient presentations to emergency care services to the Urgency Related Groups (URGs) or Urgency Disposition Groups (UDGs) classification systems.
The Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority (IHACPA) has developed a new classification for emergency care, the Australian Emergency Care Classification (AECC), to replace the URG classification system.
AECC Version 1.0
The development of the AECC has been undertaken through a robust process that included review and oversight by IHACPA's advisory committees, a national costing project, a publication and a national workshop.
The AECC has a statistically strong performance, provides scope for using additional variables, and can be used for purposes other than funding including health service planning and research.
AECC Final Report
AECC Definitions Manual
AECC Grouper
Note: The grouper is .exe format hosted on an external fire sharing website, Box.com. Some firewalls and virtual private servers (VPS) may block access to this page. Please contact your organisation’s IT support for further information.
Key links
- Urgency Related Groups and Urgency Disposition Groups
- Urgency Related Groups and Urgency Disposition Groups classification development
- Development of a refined emergency care classification
- Data set specifications
- Emergency Department ICD-10-AM Principal Diagnosis Short List
- Australian Emergency Care Classification fact sheet
- Emergency Department Principal Diagnosis Selection Guide fact sheet