Ambulance clinicians use pre-alert calls to inform receiving Emergency Departments of the arrival of a critically unwell or rapidly deteriorating patient who they believe requires senior clinical review and time-critical treatment immediately upon arrival. There is a lack of evidence about the impact of pre-alerts on patients, ED staff or ambulance clinicians, and current practice varies significantly between, and even within, different ambulance services and ED’s. The Pre-alerts mixed-methods study run by the University of Sheffield used observational data, surveys, semi-structured interviews with staff, and review of existing ambulance service guidelines and operational data to explore this topic. The results of the study will be presented by the lead researcher with some recommendations for future practice. A panel of experts will then discuss implications of the study and there will be opportunity for participants to ask questions or raise discussion via the chat function.

Aims

This webinar will explore the topic of pre-alerts from the ambulance service to the Emergency Department.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Describe the purpose of a pre-alert
• Understand the perspectives of both prehospital clinicians and ED staff
• Identify the barriers and facilitators to effective pre-alert communication
• Recognise how their own practice in delivering or receiving pre-alerts could be improved
• Appreciate the importance of involving patients and the public in research.

Panellists

Our panellists include:

• Caroline Leech - Consultant in EM/PHEM
• Fiona Sampson - Lead for Prealerts Study, University of Sheffield
• Chris Yap - Consultant EM, Northern General Hospital
• Jim Hancox - West Midlands Ambulance Service.

CPD

1 Hour