News
Alcohol Service within the Acute Hospital Setting
Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust
Carrie Cowburn, Alcohol Specialist Nurse (Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust).
A review and audit of the alcohol service within the acute hospital setting demonstrated that alcohol was a major cause of hospital attendance and admission and that alcohol-related illness was a significant economic burden on the Trust.
The Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh alcohol service was introduced in September 2007, to appropriately manage and treat all patients presenting with alcohol-related problems. It aims to prevent inappropriate admission, reduce length of stay and reduce this financial burden. The new service introduced a specialist alcohol nurse role, and implements screening strategies to establish dependence severity and a new detoxification protocol using Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment (CIWA), as well as appropriate community referral and follow-up appointments. The specialist alcohol nurse provides a single point of contact for the acute alcohol service (ensuring that patients receive the appropriate treatment by the appropriate service), facilitates communication between the acute and community sectors, and trains the multidisciplinary alcohol services team.
Audits carried out pre- and post-implementation of the service (covering a 3-month period) demonstrate a reduction in alcohol-related admissions (27%), length of stay for patients admitted for alcohol withdrawal (from 7.3 days to 2.8 days) and cost for all alcohol-related admissions (by 48% [~£300,000/3 months in 2006 vs ~£150,000/3 months in 2007]).