What is an Acute Medical Unit (AMU)?

What is an Acute Medical Unit (AMU)?

An Acute Medical Unit (AMU) is a short-stay ward/department in some UK – and other countries’ – hospitals that may be linked to an A&E but functions as a separate department.

It specialises in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of patients with acute medical problems that require urgent attention, but do not require admission to an intensive care unit or surgical specialty ward.

An AMU will accept patients from A&E or GPs (i.e. direct access from the community not via A&E). If a hospital was baseball, an AMU is ‘2nd base’. Acute wards are ‘3rd base’. They may make the diagnosis themselves, treat and discharge the patient in 1-3 days, or transfer them to acute wards, under the care of the appropriate (i.e. to the diagnosis) specialist physician.

Who is in a AMU team?

The AMU team is typically made up of healthcare professionals, including acute physicians, nurses, AHPs and other staff, who have expertise in the management of acute medical conditions. They work together to provide timely and efficient care to patients, using diagnostic tests, especially urine and blood tests and imaging including CXRs, CTs and MRIs. Many patients are treated with IV fluids and antibiotics.

Patients present with a wide range of acute medical conditions such as chest pain, shortness of breath, infections (including sepsis), and exacerbations of chronic medical conditions such as heart failure (CHF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

The AMU plays a critical role in a hospital by providing a high level of care to patients with acute medical problems, and by helping to reduce unnecessary hospital admissions and length of stay – and transferring some to the correct (for their condition) physicians and ward.

Doctors that work on AMU

These are usually hospital physicians that practice Acute Medicine. This means they specialise in the first 1-3 days of a general (internal) medical admission. Their work acts a bridge between Emergency Physicians in A&E, GPs and Specialist Physicians on Acute Wards.

What is it like?

An AMU is usually made up of several bays and has a small number of side-rooms and treatment rooms. They are fully equipped with emergency medical treatment facilities including defibrillators and resuscitation equipment.

Alternative names

There are several alternative names for an AMU. They include Medical Admission Unit (MAU), Medical Decisions Unit (MDU), Acute Assessment Unit (AAU) and Clinical Decisions Unit (CDU).

Summary