The Centre for Health Service Development The Centre for Health Service Development (CHSD) has undertaken research into methods to improve the management and provision of health services in Australia, with the goal of making a significant contribution to improving funding and delivery.
Since 1993, it has conducted around 150 health service research, development and evaluation projects, with budgets ranging from less than $10,000 to $1.5 million.
The Centre is self-funded from its project funds and from a NSW Department of Health infrastructure grant to support health research. In 2003 the CHSD was recognised as one of six research units in NSW of significance because of its track record of innovation and excellence in conducting research in public health, primary health care, and health services research. The Centre was awarded a grant for three years under NSW Health's Capacity Building Infrastructure Grant (CBIG) scheme, which aims to strengthen the research and development agenda in the health system. CHSD team members have experience in management, planning and research in health services, community services and consumer organisations as well as being members and chairpersons of intra-government and inter-government committees and organisations. In addition to producing standard academic output, the Centre's work results in a range of practical advice to a variety of government and non-government agencies and interest groups. THE ROLE OF HOSPITAL EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTS  Why, when you wake one morning and feel unwell, or when your child falls ill in the middle of the night, do you sometimes go to a hospital emergency department and at other times call on an after-hours general practitioner or medical service? Why are emergency departments busy at certain times of the day and not so busy at others?
The Centre for Health Service Development (CHSD), in collaboration with Illawarra Health (IH), is examining why patients attend emergency departments, and whether the number and types of people who use them are influenced by the availability of primary care community health services, such as general practitioners and after-hours medical services. The study stems from the perception that large numbers of patients attend emergency departments for general practitioner style care. The changes in the volume and the nature of emergency presentations to hospitals are key areas of the Priority Driven Research Program of the Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council (AHMAC). This CHSD project, based in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven regions of the south coast of New South Wales , is one of eight across the country covering diverse aspects of emergency department care. Of course, not all emergency department visits are relevant to the project - there are some patients who should not go to a general practitioner or medical service. Emergency departments have an unquestionable role in trauma and life-threatening situations and this project is looking only at cases where there is a genuine choice between receiving care in an emergency department and at a general practitioner. There are two parts to the project. The first is a large-scale analysis looking at emergency department attendances in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven in the last six years, amounting to many thousands of database records. The researchers are developing a comprehensive picture of primary care availability and access. The second phase aims to examine community perceptions about the role of emergency departments, and why patients with primary care health problems choose to attend either an emergency department or a general practitioner. < Back to Contents | Next Article >
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