We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Most callers to emergency ambulance services are transported to hospital emergency departments (EDs), but ambulance services receive no information on patient outcomes. Pre-Hospital and Emergency Department (PHED) Data is a two-year mixed-methods observational study of the process and potential benefits of linking ambulance and ED data to allow analysis of patient outcomes. We report on our first aim, to examine the potential opportunities and challenges of this data linkage initiative.
We approached six hospital trusts in an English metropolitan area. We used a structured learning log to collect data on the process, time input and reflections. We analyzed these data with descriptive statistics, and qualitatively for themes.
All six trusts agreed to participate. We used an algorithm based on date, time and patient demographics to link data. We achieved a dataset of 775,018 records covering 2012 – 2016, and a linkage rate of 81 percent.
Initial set up tasks within the ambulance service took 30 hours 20 minutes. We then identified five stages of tasks with each hospital trust: negotiating senior approval; exploring data availability; information governance agreement; data transfer; and linking. Mean time spent by the research team on these processes was 30 hours 30 minutes per trust (range: 17 hours 20 minutes to 43 hours 10 minutes), plus additional time from staff of hospital trusts. The most intensive phases were: negotiating senior approval (mean: 8 hours 5 minutes), and data linking (mean: 12 hours 40 minutes). The stage which took the longest was information governance (mean: 19 weeks).
Key themes included the positive attitudes of trusts to participating, the range of decision makers involved, and the need for sustained input from the research team.
We found the process of data linkage was feasible, but requires dedicated time from research and trust staff, over a prolonged period, to achieve set up. Linked data are now being analyzed.
To send this article to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about sending to your Kindle. Find out more about sending to your Kindle.
Note you can select to send to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be sent to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To send this article to your Dropbox account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your <service> account. Find out more about sending content to Dropbox.
To send this article to your Google Drive account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your <service> account. Find out more about sending content to Google Drive.
Email your librarian or administrator to recommend adding this journal to your organisation's collection.
