111 Urgent Care Telephone Service
New research funded by the NIHR SDO programme is examining the work, workforce, technology and organisation context required to deliver the new 111 urgent care telephone service
The NHS offers a wide range of services for urgent (non-emergency) healthcare including NHS walk-in centres, out-of-hours GP services, minor injuries units and the NHS Direct telephone service. The Department of Health are testing a single point of access to all of these services, via a three digit telephone number (111), and the government is committed to rolling this service out across England. Patients phoning 111 will encounter a call handler who will use a computer decision support system (CDSS) to help decide the most appropriate service available locally.
The lead researcher, Dr Joanne Turnbull of the University of Southampton said; “The range of services and different ways of accessing them is often confusing for patients and this can lead to delays in receiving appropriate healthcare. This research is vital in understanding how this service 'works'; it will also inform plans to roll-out 111 nationally, and to address larger questions about the work and technologies we might want to use in modern health service delivery.”
The team will use observation and informal interviews to provide a detailed description of the work, workforce, the technologies used and the organisational settings. They will have up to six focus groups with key stakeholders involved with the 111 service to understand;
• how these different people think about the new integrated service,
• the everyday work, the contribution of technologies,
• impact on the workforce and wider organisations.
A survey on information sharing and knowledge across the multiple services and range of staff implicated in 111 will be issued to understand trust and knowledge transfer in integrated services. In addition, they will hold a workshop designed to bring the work together and link it to the research, including on how much the service is used and how much it costs.
Dr Turnbull added; “By informing the evaluation of the new service and filling the research gaps by explaining the work, workforce, organisation and technology of 111 we will enable a more holistic understanding of this new way of delivering and accessing integrated urgent care services and see how it contributes to health care. It will inform the work, organisation and delivery of urgent care services to the whole population, and will also speak to the wider issues surrounding the implementation and use of technologies like CDSS to meet health needs.”
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