Acute Assessment Unit

Overview
An Acute Assessment Unit, or Acute Admissions Unit, often abbreviated to AAU, is a short-stay department in a UK hospital which is sometimes part of the Emergency Department. The Acute Assessment Unit acts as a gateway between a patient's General Practitioner, the Emergency Department and the wards of the hospital. The AAU helps the Emergency Department produce a healthy turnaround for patients, helping with the four-hour waiting rule. An AAU is usually made up of several bays and has a small number of side-rooms and treatment rooms. They are fully equipped with emergency medical treatment facilities including defibrilators and resuscitation equipment.

Patients
From the Emergency Department, patients can be moved to AAU where they will undergo further tests and stabalisation before they are transferred to the relevant ward or sent home. Also, patients can be admitted straight to AAU from their General Practitioner if he or she believes the patient needs hospital treatment. A patient's stay in the unit is limited, usually no more than 48 hours.

Staff
Senior staff in an AAU include a Consultant in General Medicine, Emergency Medicine or Critical Care. Often a Registrar in General Medicine, and a Ward Sister or a Charge Nurse have roles in the unit. A number of Staff Nurses work alongside the senior staff to provide care to patients in the unit.

Although AAU has its own staff trained to deal with patients and provide care, members of staff from other departments in the hospital are needed in AAU to assess patients and provide further diagnosis. Typical examples of staff who may be needed in AAU are General Surgeons, Cardiologists and a Psychiatric Liaison Nurse.

Alternative names for the department
Different hospitals use different names for the department - common names for this department are:
 * Acute Assessment Unit
 * Acute Admissions Unit
 * Medical Assessment Unit