What influences ambulance clinician decisions to pre-alert emergency departments: a qualitative exploration of pre-alert practice in UK ambulance services and emergency departments.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Ambulance clinicians use pre-alerts to inform receiving hospitals of the imminent arrival of a time-critical patient considered to require immediate attention, enabling the receiving emergency department (ED) or other clinical area to prepare. Pre-alerts are key to ensuring immediate access to appropriate care, but unnecessary pre-alerts can divert resources from other patients and fuel 'pre-alert fatigue' among ED staff. This research aims to provide a better understanding of pre-alert decision-making practice.

Methods

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 34 ambulance clinicians from three ambulance services and 40 ED staff from six receiving EDs. Observation (162 hours) of responses to pre-alerts (n=143, call-to-handover) was also conducted in the six

SUBMITTER: O'Hara R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11874316 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature