Understanding Acuity in Healthcare

Acuity indicates the urgency of patient care in healthcare settings. This classification system helps nurses, physicians, and other medical professionals decide who to treat first and which patients may safely wait a little longer for care.

Patient acuity measurement tools have evolved over the years. While healthcare professionals’ experience and observation skills are still vital, acuity checks have improved with templated checklists and digitally integrated tools that record patient data directly into electronic healthcare record (EHR) systems. 

Understanding acuity in healthcare helps personnel create better patient outcomes. It can also streamline processes, improve resource allocation, and reduce the risk of physician burnout. 

What Does Acuity Mean in Healthcare?

Patient acuity is typically broken down into three key elements: 

• Severity: How urgent or severe is the main problem?

• Complexity: Are there multiple problems, or will the patient require specialist intervention?

• Intensity or frequency of care: Will the patient require frequent nursing care, medication, movement, procedures, or other regular attention?

These three aspects are generalizations, and within each, specifics relating to the type of patient and the healthcare setting will change. However, these basic patient acuity measures can help ensure that patients with the most pressing needs get the care they need as quickly as possible.

How Acuity Impacts Healthcare

Understanding how acuity impacts healthcare helps organization leaders strategize better. Gaining insights into how acuity impacts nursing, staffing, and other critical aspects of healthcare facilities can mean the difference between profit and loss. It can also seriously impact patient outcomes. Here are just a few ways patient acuity affects various aspects of healthcare. 

The Amount of Nursing Care

High-acuity patients require more attention from nurses in hospital settings. They may need their vital signs checked frequently, medication administered regularly, or preparation for tests and procedures. Facilities with an increasing volume of high-acuity patients may consider investing in more nurses, including highly trained, specialist nurses. 

Staffing 

Similarly, acuity measures can impact other staffing resources. If an ER department has five receptionists, but only two are busy due to a low volume of high-acuity patients, those team members could optimize their productivity in other departments. 

Resource Allocation

The right number of nurses and other personnel is just one aspect of effective resource allocation. Healthcare organizations must also consider the medication, equipment, and consumables they keep in stock. 

They should also consider how they log the increasing use of these resources when more high-acuity patients are admitted. NextGen EHR and EPM (electronic practice management) solutions often include ways to quickly log increasing resource consumption. This is one way the right digital tools can help healthcare facilities stay on top of revenue cycle management and ensure they spend their budgets on the right resources. 

What Are High and Low Acuity Patients? 

How is patient acuity identified? The tools and measures used in various settings differ, which we’ll discuss shortly. However, here are some general examples of low- and high-acuity patients. 

Low-Acuity Patients 

Low-acuity patients are generally self-sufficient and require minimal intervention to remain stable. They may be on a low level of oxygen or taking oral medication that can be safely self-administered. In a hospital setting, patients shouldn’t need additional pain medication more than once every six hours to be rated at the lowest end of the acuity scale. 

High-Acuity Patients

High-acuity patients require frequent intervention, in-depth care, or complex treatment. These may range from close observation by mental health care specialists to frequent medication or blood transfusions. 

Some studies show that evening shifts at hospitals experience the highest acuity of patients, which may reflect post-work alcohol consumption and other social factors. Planning for these peak periods can help healthcare facilities streamline their staffing processes. 

Acuity in Different Healthcare Settings

As discussed, patient acuity has different key measures depending on the setting. A nurse in the ER watches for specific patient warning signs, while an orderly looks for other indications in an in-patient mental health facility. Here are some acuity measurement examples across four common healthcare settings. 

Emergency Departments

ER personnel look for serious wounds, bleeding, pain, seizures, signs of heart attacks and strokes, and severe allergic reactions, among other symptoms. Many ERs have a list of “Red” symptoms that immediately identify a patient as high-acuity. These patients are seen as quickly as possible, even if others have been waiting.

Intensive Care Units (ICU)

In the ICU, nurses watch for other signs, such as pain medication losing effectiveness, fluctuating vital signs, or sudden seizures. A lack of response to external stimuli can also indicate that immediate intervention is required.

Long-Term Care Facilities

Long-term care is very different from acute care or in-patient hospital treatment. Patients will likely live their day-to-day lives with complex or ongoing conditions. High-acuity patients may include those who require medical devices that need constant monitoring, those at risk from falls, or those who suffer from confusion and could get lost or come to harm.

Mental Health Facilities

Nursing in mental health is complex, and even two people with the same condition may have very different needs. A patient with schizophrenia who is calm and sociable while taking certain medications could be classed as low-acuity. Someone else with depression may require frequent interaction to remove harmful objects, ensure medications are taken correctly, and mediate social interactions. These are generalizations that depend on each individual’s situation and medical history. 

Common Tools for Measuring Acuity and How TempDev Can Help

Today, medical practitioners don’t need to rely solely on their knowledge and experience to identify patients as low or high acuity. Templates, particularly setting-specific templates, can provide consistent checklists that help nurses and other professionals gather the right information and score acuity as accurately as possible. Importantly, EHR systems that integrate with acuity measurement tools are essential for effective communication and collaboration — and the best patient outcomes.

TempDev provides consultation services to help healthcare providers get the most from their NextGen EHR systems. We can help you redesign your workflows to fully integrate acuity into your processes and streamline your resource allocation, helping reduce the administrative burden on all your team members. With admin tasks being a primary cause of physician burnout, finding the right digital tools can be the key to retaining your top talent. 

Conclusion: The Importance of Acuity in Improving Care Quality

Accurate patient acuity measurement allows you to treat the people who need it most when they need it. Work with TempDev to understand how your NextGen systems can help you improve acuity identification and boost your overall quality of care. Contact us online or call 888.TEMP.DEV.