Project overview
Older people have a high usage of emergency ambulance services. Dementia is a common condition affecting older people using health services, and impacts on all aspects of their care.
South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) in partnership with academic colleagues from the Universities of Portsmouth and Southampton and members of the public carried out an audit and a survey of ambulance clinical staff on the recording of dementia in the SCAS electronic patient record (ePR).
We found that dementia is recorded in 16 different free-text fields on the ePR, making it difficult for accurate data retrieval by other staff referring to the record. Clinicians surveyed suggested that a designated button would enable systematic recording of dementia, facilitating transfer of this key information to other services.
We propose to implement this digital change and evaluate its implementation using a re-audit of the electronic data and a further survey of clinical staff.
South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) in partnership with academic colleagues from the Universities of Portsmouth and Southampton and members of the public carried out an audit and a survey of ambulance clinical staff on the recording of dementia in the SCAS electronic patient record (ePR).
We found that dementia is recorded in 16 different free-text fields on the ePR, making it difficult for accurate data retrieval by other staff referring to the record. Clinicians surveyed suggested that a designated button would enable systematic recording of dementia, facilitating transfer of this key information to other services.
We propose to implement this digital change and evaluate its implementation using a re-audit of the electronic data and a further survey of clinical staff.
Staff
Lead researchers
Collaborating research institutes, centres and groups
Research outputs
Phil King, Patryk Jadzinski, Helen Pocock, Chloe Lofthouse-Jones, Martina Brown & Carole Fogg,
2024, British Paramedic Journal, 9(2), 29-37
Type: article