Identifying the predictors of avoidable emergency department attendance after contact with the NHS 111 phone service: analysis of 16.6 million calls to 111 in England in 2015-2017.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To measure the frequency of patients making avoidable emergency department (ED) attendances after contact with NHS 111 and to examine whether these attendances can be predicted reliably.

Design

Analysis of 16 563 946 calls made to 111, where each call was linked with a record of whether the patient attended ED within 24 hours.

Setting

All regions of England from March 2015 to October 2017.

Participants and data

Our main regression model used a sample of 10 954 783 calls, each with detailed patient-level information.

Main outcome

Whether patients made an unadvised, non-urgent type 1 ED ('avoidable') attendance within 24 hours of calling 111.

Results

Of 16 563 946 calls to 111, 12 894 561 (77.8%) were not advised to go to ED (ie, they wer

SUBMITTER: Egan M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7066618 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature