Australasian Emergency Nursing Journal
Volume 12, Issue 1 , Pages 16-20, February 2009

The SAPhTE Study: The comparison of the SAPhTE (Safe-T) workload measurement tool against the current in-service tool within Queensland Health's Emergency Medicine Departments☆

  • John Degan, RN, BN, Grad Cert Emergency Care

      Affiliations

    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +61 7 5470 6590; fax: +61 7 5470 6795.
    • ,
  • Paul Negus, RN, BN

Department of Emergency Medicine, Nambour General Hospital, PO Box 547, Nambour, Qld 4560, Australia

Received 22 July 2008; received in revised form 22 October 2008; accepted 23 November 2008.

Summary 

Background

Emergency Departments need management tools that keep up with the changing demands of the emergency work environment. There is a need for a tool that accurately measures overall Emergency Department demand in real time that can provide predictive ED information and be linked to local escalation strategies.

Method

To test the validity of the SAPhTE scoring matrix as a tool to measure Emergency Department pressures in real time. To achieve this, the relationship between the SAPhTE matrix and other Emergency Department performance indicators were explored.

Results

The SAPhTE score had a high correlation to the ECHO score, however both scores had a poor correlation to the daily mean number of presentations/admissions.

Conclusion

The SAPhTE score is a viable tool for use in the Emergency Department setting, and has the advantage over ECHO in that staffing and environmental factors are reflected within the scoring system.

Keywords: SAPhTE, Emergency, Workload, ECHO

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☆ J Degan contributed to the development of the study protocol. P Negus performed the statistical analysis collection. All authors contributed to the preparation of the final manuscript.

PII: S1574-6267(08)00200-0

doi:10.1016/j.aenj.2008.11.005

Australasian Emergency Nursing Journal
Volume 12, Issue 1 , Pages 16-20, February 2009

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