Ambulatory Care Services
Ambulatory care services means providing treatment and care without the child having an overnight stay in the facility. These services include outpatient, day surgery, day care, emergency care and home based care with appropriate support from the hospital and the community.
An ambulatory care approach means more children can be cared for as close to home as possible, with only the sickest children having to be admitted to the new Children’s Hospital of Ireland where they can get the required care and attention.
The Ambulatory and Urgent Care Centre at Tallaght, though a separate facility, is an integral part of the new children’s hospital organisation. It will be under the governance and management of the new Children’s Hospital of Ireland.
The majority of paediatric specialties will be provided in the Ambulatory and Urgent Care Centre except where
- The care needed is highly specialised requiring the in-put of several sub-specialties, primarily based with in-patient services or
- It is not viable to provide a service if the number of children requiring this service is so low that it is best served from a single location
In 2009, 90% of planned activity in the three children’s hospitals in Dublin was delivered through either out-patient or day care attendances. Therefore, the highest volume of paediatric services is provided as a planned attendance either to out-patient or day care service.
The plan is for the ambulatory workload (out-patients and day care services) to be split between the two locations, with a third of this activity occurring at the Ambulatory and Urgent Care Centre at Tallaght and two thirds at the new Children’s Hospital of Ireland at Eccles Street.
Day care and out-patient services are planned and designed to support drop-in clinics, rapid access clinics, out-reach clinics to regional hospitals, shared care programmes with regional / local hospitals and to co-ordinate home based care, in particular through the utilisation of integrated Information Communication Technology (ICT) systems.
Day Care at Tallaght
The day surgery unit will have three operating theatres and two major procedure rooms supported by first stage recovery and 28 day care beds. There are 10,250 day care attendances projected for the Ambulatory and Urgent Care Centre for 2021.
This represents 36% of the total day care attendances between the two locations. The hours of operation are planned from 7am to 9pm, Monday to Friday.
Out Patient Services at Tallaght:
Out-patient services will be provided through 26 consulting examination rooms with the necessary support accommodation. There are 63,400 out-patient attendances planned for the Ambulatory and Urgent Care Centre for 2021.
This represents 31% of the total out-patient attendances between the two locations. The hours of operation for out-patient services are planned from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday.
Urgent Care at Tallaght
The Urgent Care Centre is planned to provide full emergency services in line with the children’s hospital at Eccles Street. It will have 8 observation beds for children requiring a short stay in the centre for observation prior to being discharged. All in-patient admissions will be to the children’s hospital at Eccles Street. There are 55,700 urgent care attendances planned for the Ambulatory and Urgent Care Centre for 2021.
This represents 45% of the total emergency care attendances between the two sites. The planned hours of operation are from 7am to 10pm, seven days a week.
Diagnostic Support
The Ambulatory and Urgent Care Centre at Tallaght will provide diagnostic services including imaging, plain radiology, ultrasound, MRI, cardiology, ECG, pathology and neuro-physiology among other supports.
Ambulatory and Urgent Care Centre Staff
The Ambulatory and Urgent Care Centre at Tallaght will be managed and governed by the management structure established for the new Children’s Hospital of Ireland at Eccles Street. Staff in the Ambulatory and Urgent Care Centre will be employees of the new children’s hospital and some will rotate between the two sites.
For example, a consultant and support staff will operate a day surgery session once a week or hold a monthly out-patient clinic in the Ambulatory and Urgent Care Centre at Tallaght.