Understanding ambulance service stakeholder perspectives on how point-of-care (POC) technology can identify the primary care needs of patients and inform the prehospital care plan. A qualitative interview study.

PI Title: Jamie Miles

Lead member: Oxford

"Every year in England, there are around 8 million calls to the ambulance service.  Only around 1 in 10 of these will be a serious emergency.  The rest might have a health need that requires a different level of care - such as from a GP, pharmacist, or nurse.  Some may even be patients that paramedics can treat and leave at home.

These patients could be described having a ‘Primary Care Sensitive Condition’ or known as a 'Primary Care Sensitive (PCS)' patient. We know they have a care need, but it could be managed in the community instead of by an ambulance or Emergency Department (ED).  

We also know it is hard for ambulance staff to work out what the exact care need of a PCS patient is.  There are lots of reasons for this, such as limited access to that patient's health data and a lack of available technology.

This technology includes being able to take blood or urine samples from patients and analyse them within minutes.  It is also possible to perform scans using an ultrasound scanner, which is the same scanner used in pregnant women for looking at the baby.  In an ambulance, it is used to see organs of the body and make sure they are healthy.  There are tests that can be done on a computer that can help decide what are the care needs for the patient, and where is the best place for the patient to be.  

In this study, we want to know what ambulance people think about the use of technology in PCS patients. The new knowledge from this study will hopefully help us understand why ambulance services are not using them to identify the care needs of PCS patients.  

We will ask a lot of different types of ambulance people.  These might be paramedics who respond in an ambulance. They could also be people who make the decisions on what technology goes on an ambulance.  We will even try to ask people who invent and make the technology. The way we will be asking all these people is through an interview.  This lets us ask lots of questions to everyone, making sure we get all their views and beliefs.  We can then look at all the answers and find what they all agree and disagree on about the topic.

The results will hopefully lead to new ways of thinking about how to bring this technology to the clinicians who need it, and to the patients who could benefit from it. Once we can work out the answers to these questions, we can start to create new care plans and help these patients in a meaningful way."

Amount awarded: £27,729