Towards an understanding of frequent ambulance use in England

Scott, Jason and Dawson, Pamela (2015) Towards an understanding of frequent ambulance use in England. In: European Network For Mental Health Service Evaluation, 1-3 October 2015, Malaga, Spain.

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Abstract

Objectives In response to a perceived lack of evidence on frequent callers, a national ambulance service group was established in England in April 2013 to bring experts together from each ambulance service to share best practice and explore Methods of improving the quality of care delivered to this population group. This presentation will bring together aligned pieces of work, including: • A systematic review of international literature on frequent callers • An analysis of frequent callers to one ambulance service • Development of an ambulance quality indicator (AQI) for frequent callers Methods Multiple Methods were utilised. For the systematic review, Ovid,PubMed and CINAHL / Medline were systematically searched for articles that were published in English and either referred to frequent callers to or users of EMSs, or referred to frequent users of other services where admissions were via ambulance. The analysis of the top 100 frequent callers to an ambulance service used population comparison, case control and multiple regression Methods. The development of an AQI drew upon the findings from these two studies and meetings with representatives from all ambulance services in England. Results There is a paucity of research on frequent callers, with no standard definition of what constitutes a frequent caller. Of the top 100 callers, patients with a psychiatric classification had a higher number of different reasons for calling (p=0.002), were older (p<0.001) and were more likely to call for ‘Assault / Sexual Assault’ (p=0.001) or ‘Haemorrhage / Laceration’ (p=0.023). ‘Psychiatric / Abnormal Behaviour / Suicide Attempt’ was the third biggest predictor of the total number of calls made (p<0.001). The AQI was modified to include a standard, national definition of a frequent caller, and national guidelines for the management of frequent callers are being developed. Conclusions This body of work encapsulates current progress in England on the topic of frequent callers, which has helped to standardise care cross ambulance services. It is still unknown how to best provide integrated care across health and social care boundaries for frequent callers, how frequent callers themselves narrate their own healthcare use and how they impact upon the wider health economy.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Keywords:	Frequent callers, healthcare quality, systematic review, mental health.
Depositing User:	Ms Kerry Kellaway
Date Deposited:	21 Aug 2019 10:11
Last Modified:	14 Feb 2020 15:24
URI:	https://marjon.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/17463

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