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. 2025 Oct;37(5):e70135.
doi: 10.1111/1742-6723.70135.

Urgent Care Centre Eligible Presentations in a Remote Emergency Department

Jack Johnstone  1 , Chris Perry  2 , Ellice Rigby  3 , Lisa Capps  4   5 , Richard Johnson  2   6   7
Affiliations

Urgent Care Centre Eligible Presentations in a Remote Emergency Department

Jack Johnstone et al. Emerg Med Australas. 2025 Oct.

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to identify presentations to the Alice Springs Emergency Department that could be managed in an Urgent Care Centre (UCC).

Methods: We reviewed 1 year of ED presentation data at Alice Springs Hospital (ASH) from August 2022 to August 2023 and used a sequence of exclusion criteria to identify patients most likely to be eligible for UCC management.

Results: Our model indicated that 35.0% of ED presentations at ASH during this period could have been managed in a UCC. Only 41.5% of these presentations (14.5% of total presentations) occurred during UCC operating hours.

Conclusions: According to this model, a significant proportion of ED presentations could potentially be managed in a UCC, although a large proportion of these occurred outside of UCC opening hours. The impact of the introduction of a UCC into a remote community on ED presentations, patient experience, patient outcomes and the broader system requires further study.

Keywords: Primary Health Care; Urgent Care Centre; emergency department overcrowding; healthcare access; low acuity presentations.

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Conflict of interest statement

Richard Johnson is currently the Deputy Director of Medical and Clinical Services at Alice Springs Hospital (ASH) and an Emergency Medicine Specialist at Alice Springs Hospital. At the time of conception of the project, Jack Johnstone was a Senior Resident Medical Officer in Alice Springs Hospital Emergency Department, and Ellice Rigby was an Emergency Registrar in Alice Springs Hospital Emergency Department.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Stepwise exclusion of patients.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
A graphical representation of ED presentations by time of day over a 12 months period, showing all presentations, those eligible for management in an urgent care centre at any time, those eligible who presented during UCC business hours and those who did not wait to be seen.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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