The emergence of Acute Care Team has changed the delivery of services in the United Kingdom. The Acute Care Team led by a senior psychiatrist, is composed of in-patient and home treatment teams, which work in close liaison. As this is a relatively new model, the effectiveness is yet to be proven.

The study was performed to evaluate the influence of the Acute Care Team on service delivery.

The aim of the study was to determine the difference in the number of admissions and duration of hospital stay, following the inception of the model at Clatterbridge Hospital, in the Northwest region of England.

Retrospective data was obtained for a 14 month time period before and after introduction of acute care team in June 2007. All consecutive admissions to a general adult psychiatric ward were included in the study. The outcome measures were the number of admissions, average duration of hospital stay and average bed occupancy. Data was obtained from the hospital register.

There was no difference in the total number of admissions. However, the length of stay reduced significantly from 58.9 days to 14.4 days (reduction by 75%). The average bed occupancy was also reduced by 38%.

Our study suggests that the Acute Care Team is an effective system of health care delivery and can have financial implications on the organization of mental health services in the future.