NSW Health's Emergency Care Assessment and Treatment (ECAT) program has gone live across Southern's ten emergency departments. The program aims to standardise nurse-initiated emergency care, improving the experience for patients and health staff during initial emergency care.
Nurse-initiated protocols and models of care are well established in NSW emergency departments. They safely reduce the time a patient waits for treatment, improve the standard of care and reduce the patient's length of stay in the emergency department.
Supported by a robust education pathway and governance, ECAT provides a standardised approach to nurse-initiated care for the most common presentations by children and adults in our EDs.
The program went live across Southern in June 2024, with onsite support provided by local ECAT Champions, along with our in-house digital health and clinical support teams.
Kayla Darby, at South East Regional Hospital, was the first person in Southern to officially use an ECAT protocol when the site when live on 19 June.
ECAT means emergency nurses are beginning to treat patients more quickly and reducing wait times, which is making a real difference to our patients' journey and their outcome.
