Emergency Services Resource Assessment Tool (ESRAT)

What is the Emergency Services Resource Assessment Toolkit (ESRAT)?

The Emergency Services Resource Assessment Toolkit is a resource and needs assessment tool that is designed to evaluate a health care facility’s capacity to care for undifferentiated acute illness. The tool is paper-based, and focuses on staffing, medications and equipment, continuing medical education, and services available for care of patients with traumatic injuries and emergency conditions.

Why use the Emergency Services Resource Assessment Toolkit (ESRAT)?

Use of the ESRAT helps decision makers have a better understanding of the current state of emergency and acute care in the area that it is implemented. This data then allows for richly informed decision-making, and the information can be used to design appropriate interventions to strengthen acute care systems and improve upon the care provided to injured and ill patients in need of emergency services. The ESRAT model includes all of the materials needed for execution, in contrast to other proprietary toolkits which require the development of costly and challenging-to-maintain implementation workflows.

Will the Emergency Services Resource Assessment Toolkit (ESRAT) work for me?

Included in the Emergency Services Resource Assessment Toolkit are five documents that form the complete set of materials needed. The Emergency Services Resource Assessment Tool Checklist is the guide to preparing for and administering the ESRAT tool and the ESRAT hospital survey contains the survey instrument itself.  In addition to this, the package includes the ESRAT adaptation guideline, allowing the toolkit to be modified for the particular needs and concerns of the implementing body as well as the ESRAT data monitors manual and the ESRAT data monitor training course which provide training and guidance to ensure high quality, reproducible and accurate data collection. The use of the ESRAT to provide data-driven recommendations to advance the state of emergency care has been piloted in Ghana, Rwanda, Ethiopia and El Salvador – all widely recognized as a regional thought and development leaders in emergency and acute care for their populations.

How does the Emergency Services Resource Assessment Toolkit (ESRAT) integrate with other elements of the sidHARTe toolkit?

The results of the ESRAT help develop targeted interventions that can be quickly scaled and rolled out using the other elements of the sidHARTe Toolkit for Acute Care Systems (STACS). Gaps in continuing medical education can be addressed with the Acute Care Inservice course, while challenges with medical equipment can be targeted using the Essential Emergency Package. Continuous monitoring of improvement is possible using the Indicators for Acute Care. The ESRAT allows identification of challenges preventing the system from delivering the best possible outcomes by WHO Health System building block and the STACS offers tools to address each challenge: swiftly, reliably, and based on the belief that high quality emergency care should be universally available and accessible to those who need it.

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