Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

• Frequent callers to the ambulance service: patient profiling and impact of case management on patient utilisation of the ambulance service

  Edwards, Melanie J.; Bassett, Gary; Sinden, Levi; Fothergill, Rachael (2015-05)

  Background A minority of patients make frequent and excessive calls to the ambulance service, placing a significant burden on limited resources at a time when demand on urgent and emergency care systems is steadily increasing. Little is known about the reasons underlying frequent caller behaviour or the best way to manage this group of patients. Objectives The present study aimed to (i) profile frequent callers to the ambulance service and (ii) evaluate the impact of a case management interventional approach on frequent caller behaviour. Methods A retrospective review of data from a 2-year period (from 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2011) was conducted. Patients were included in the analysis if they had been accepted for case management intervention by the Patient-Centred Action Team during this period and met the study inclusion criteria. Results The review identified 110 frequent callers who met the study inclusion criteria. The majority of frequent callers (86%) had multiple and complex reasons for calling, including frequent medical need, acute or chronic mental health condition, older age and unmet personal or social care needs. In the majority of cases (82%), multiple interventional strategies were required. A significant reduction in median call volume was observed from preintervention to postintervention (from five calls/month to zero calls/month). Conclusions Effective management of this complex patient group requires an individualised case management approach in order to identify and tackle the underlying causes of behaviour. https://emj.bmj.com/content/32/5/392.long This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2013-203496
• Stay on the ambulance long enough and you’ll go full circle: an evaluation of the clinical safety and effectiveness of non-emergency and multi-occupancy ambulance conveyance in non-emergency percutaneous coronary intervention patients

  Scholes, Steven; Tunn, Eddie; Newton, Mark; Ratcliffe, David (2016-12)

  Abstract published with permission. Mechanisms to facilitate rapid ambulance transport of diagnosed STEMI patients from the community and emergency departments (ED) settings directly to primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) facilities are well established within NHS Ambulance Services. Direct challenge of inter-hospital transfer requests for non-emergency percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) patients by a regional NHS Ambulance Service identified disagreement between peripheral feeder hospitals and the NHS Ambulance Service on what level of ambulance transport is most appropriate. To reduce unnecessary peripheral feeder hospital requests for paramedic emergency service transfer and resource utilisation in non-emergency PCI patients and to assess the clinical safety of both non-emergency transport and multi-occupancy conveyance for this patient group. A process was established with a regional cardiothoracic centre to support pre-screening of non-emergency PCI patients for conveyance via non-emergency ambulance resources and multi-occupancy. This included centralisation of all non-emergency PCI ambulance transport booking practices and dissemination of learning materials on the process to all stakeholders. During the three-year period 3172 patients were identified as suitable for conveyance by both non-emergency ambulance transports. Of this, 36% (n=1767) were conveyed as part of a multi-occupancy journey and 56% (n=782) were conveyed by non-emergency resources. Overall, 69% (n=782) of all multi-occupancy conveyances were undertaken by non-emergency resources. Two clinical incidents were noted during this period, both of which were managed via clinical telephone advice. Non-emergency ambulances can be safely used to transport non-emergency PCI patients via multi-occupancy, following appropriate pre-screening by the receiving PCI unit. Further work is needed to understand the feasibility of this across other patient groups in the inter-hospital transfer scenario and its transferability to other NHS Ambulance Services.
• A survey-based evaluation of the impact of menopause transition on female ambulance staff in one UK ambulance service

  Foster, Theresa; Prothero, Larissa; Winterson, Debra (2020-10)

  Menopausal symptoms can have a significant impact on workplace attendance and performance, yet limited evidence regarding the menopause transition in the emergency services exists. The aim of this study was to explore work and personal impacts of the menopause on female staff in the ambulance setting. https://emj.bmj.com/content/37/10/e6.3 This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2020-999abs.12