Project summary


Background

Emphasis on healthcare quality and patient safety has increased significantly in recent years. In part this has been a consequence of concerning findings picked up through high impact, well-publicized reports into the current state of affairs both nationally and internationally.

Work has been conducted looking at safety gaps that exist within the patient pathway; including between primary and secondary care and daily clinical handover between hospital teams. There is a critical transition point occurring with regularity that needs further scrutiny: Escalation of Care (EoC). Escalation represents part of the entire handover process and is one of the multiple deficiencies that exist within clinical handover at the present time.

The introduction of several electronic and technological improvements in the way health systems work (known as eHealth) has incentivized those in the healthcare industry to invest in this area. This research project will use eHealth and a systems approach to escalation to improve the quality and safety of escalation within clinical handover.

Aims

  1. To define a systems approach to EoC which will identify the levels of escalation
  2. To establish the problems within handover that occur at each level across the patient pathway from patient through to consultant/critical care
  3. To assess the ability of technology to improve these issues including current structures such as EWS and H@N
  4. To develop new software with the aim of improving EoC practice
  5. To test the safety, efficacy and cost-effectiveness of the new software.

Outputs

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Theme lead

Dr Sonal Arora