Question: Economics of emergency department waiting times

Waiting times are synonymous with Emergency Departments. Select one state in Australia and provide the overall statistics on emergency department waiting times (including the expected wait times based on categories). Provide three options to improve wait times and the cost savings attributed to that change (N.B. If the change will not involve any savings provide a very good justification why or consider another option).

Criterias:

You will be assessed on the following:

- Report Format use and length - use of an executive summary (ES) Contents Page (CP) matching section headings in text, with page numbering.

- Keeping to the word limit of 2700 words. This excludes the ES, CP and references. Words in tables count towards your word count.

- Academic writing skills, construction of paragraphs - written in a formal academic style, edited for spelling, grammar and language fluency, citation and referencing.

- Contents relevant to the subject and topic adequately covered.

- Ability to support argument with evidence. For example, say "this resulted in an increase in spending by 10% over the 2007-2010 period", NOT ‘this resulted in an increase in spending".

- Evidence of critical analysis of sources and content, eg strengths, weaknesses identified, recommendations made for improvements, etc.

20 references in APA format

2700 words

1. INTRODUCTION

The appearance and setting out of assignments or presentations, is a component of the Unit Assessment Guidelines. So also you will find criteria relating to mastery of language and expression. Communication competencies are a degree requirement too. The purpose of this document is just to provide some hints on how to better present work, using report format. It is not the same as clinical report format. This paper is about documents as an alternative to essays. This is how most Australian Commonwealth and State government departments present their documents.

This paper should be considered ‘work in progress' and it will be continually updated. As I find frequently occurring errors in student's work I will use them (anonymously of course) to show how problems can be corrected.

2. REPORT FORMAT

Firstly see the Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers. This held at the University libraries in open reserve. It is not an expensive book to buy.

(2002) Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers. Stafford, Queensland: John Wiley and Sons, Australia. ISBN 2002 070163648 3

2.1 Section Headings

ALL PAGES MUST BE NUMBERED IN WORK SUBMITTED EXCEPT THE ASSIGNMENT COVER PAGE. YOU MUST ALSO INSERT YOUR NAME, STUDENT NUMBER, UNIT NUMBER AND NAME INTO THE FOOTER OF ALL WORK SUBMITTED TO vUWS.

Use an assignment cover page - this is a UWS requirement for all written work and do not forget to put one on handouts or short papers. You MUST tick the declarations. Although not a Turnitin requirement many unit co-ordinators require this because of details of contact information- especially useful for external and blended learning units.

2.2 Executive Summary
This summarises the content of your paper. An executive summary covers ALL the content ie topic, definitions, rationale, issues covered but also includes a summary of findings, all the main points, recommendations and implications of these recommendations eg costings, major changes in service delivery, etc. The executive summary (ES) should reflect the content requirements of the assignment you are submitting in summary form. Note it is not the same as an abstract, which and usually only hints at findings. The ES states what you found not what you intend to cover in the assignment.

An ES must stand alone. It is a separate page for this reason. It is intended as an alternative source of information to the whole paper. Often it is printed as a separate document. Executives or management may read this one (or two pages if a large document) only to make a resource allocation decision. They may wish to check some details and not read the whole paper. Note that an ES comes before the contents page. It is given number i.

An ES is not used for a very short paper or a handout eg two pages!

An ES may include references but they are acknowledged in the ES ie it has its own list of references or footnoted references. Any reference used in the ES if re-used in text must also be included in the references section of the full report.