Beschreibung:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>To identify current <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">ED</jats:styled-content> models of care and their impact on care quality, care effectiveness, and cost. A systematic search of key health databases (<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">M</jats:styled-content>edline, <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">CINAHL</jats:styled-content>, <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">C</jats:styled-content>ochrane, <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">EMbase</jats:styled-content>) was conducted to identify literature on <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">ED</jats:styled-content> models of care. Additionally, a focused review of the contents of 11 international and national emergency medicine, nursing and health economic journals (published between 2010 and 2013) was undertaken with snowball identification of references of the most recent and relevant papers. Articles published between 1998 and 2013 in the <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">E</jats:styled-content>nglish language were included for initial review by three of the authors. Studies in underdeveloped countries and not addressing the objectives of the present study were excluded. Relevant details were extracted from the retrieved literature, and analysed for relevance and impact. The literature was synthesised around the study's main themes. Models described within the literature mainly focused on addressing issues at the input, throughput or output stages of <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">ED</jats:styled-content> care delivery. Models often varied to account for site specific characteristics (e.g. onsite inpatient units) or to suit staffing profiles (e.g. extended scope physiotherapist), <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">ED</jats:styled-content> geographical location (e.g. metropolitan or rural site), and patient demographic profile (e.g. paediatrics, older persons, ethnicity). Only a few studies conducted cost‐effectiveness analysis of service models. Although various models of delivering emergency healthcare exist, further research is required in order to make accurate and reliable assessments of their safety, clinical effectiveness and cost‐effectiveness.</jats:p>