Table 1. Interview topic guide.

Theme	Topic	Subtopics	Interview1
Physical	Context	Board context. Hospital context: • Number of medical beds and receiving wards. • ED/Surgical/Medical/O&G/Paediatrics services. • Provision of tertiary medical services.	Nurse 1
	Physical areas	Constituent parts including bed numbers and functions. Other areas of note (ED, HDU, stroke unit, CCU, day medicine unit). Geographical layout.	Nurse 1
	Facilities	Level 0/1/2 care. Monitoring–bedside, central, telemetry. Cohorted patients. Provision for central lines/arterial lines. EWS used. Care of the deteriorating patient.	Nurse 1
Process	Patient entry sources	ED/GP/other. Alternative entry routes for medical patients.	Trainee 1
	Specific presentations	DVT, time critical presentations such as patients requiring emergency percutaneous coronary intervention or stroke thrombolysis.	Trainee 1
	Patient journey	Referral/arrival/diagnostics/assessment/disposal.	Trainee 1
	Return and planned care	-	Consultant 1
	Alternatives to admission	-	Consultant 1
	Clinics	Provision for acute medical clinics.	Consultant 1
Procedural	Capacity management	Management of patient flow. Procedures at times of excess demand.	Nurse 1
	Communication	Safety briefs/board rounds +/- the multidisciplinary team.	Nurse 2
	Interfaces	Primary care, ED, critical care.	Trainees 1
Personnel	Nurse staffing	Role of nurse in charge. Staffing numbers (weekday/weekend/overnight, registered and unregistered).	Nurse 2
	Multidisciplinary staffing	Hours of cover (week/weekend). Responsibilities within and outside the AMU. Role.	Pharmacy; therapy.
	Non-consultant staffing2	Source. Grades. Hours and responsibilities within and outside the AMU (week/weekday/overnight). Downstream medical ward cover (evenings/nights/weekend).	Trainees 2
	Consultant staffing	Number of consultants at the week/weekend. Hours of presence. Responsibilities within and outside the AMU. Patient contacts. Other commitments. Source. Continuity. Frequency. Downstream cover. Direct clinical care programmed activity sessions within the acute medicine service.	Consultant 2
	Patient review	Frequency of review (direct/indirect, week/weekend).	Consultant 2
	Specialty care	Input to AMU per medical specialty (Care of the elderly, respiratory, cardiology, gastroenterology, diabetes/endocrinology, renal, rheumatology, haematology, neurology, stroke, infectious diseases, dermatology, oncology, palliative care). Specialist nurse availability. Availability of mental health, surgery and critical care support.	Consultant 1

ACP–acute care physician; ED–emergency department, O&G–obstetrics and gynaecology; HDU–high dependency unit; CCU–coronary care unit; EWS–early warning system; DVT–deep vein thrombosis, MDT–multidisciplinary team.

¹Refers to which of the six interviews these topics were covered in.

²Non-consultant staff were defined as practitioners providing a medical role who were not acting at the level of a consultant. A medical role was defined as activities that related to the diagnosis and treatment of illness that are traditionally undertaken by doctors and that are separate to the activities of patient care traditionally undertaken by nursing staff.