Trust welcomes greater focus on outcomes to measure success
Wednesday, 20 April, 2011
A new series of clinical quality indicators mean the standard of care received by patients in the South East will in future be measured on its quality rather than simply the time it takes for ambulance staff to arrive and treat them.
The 11 new national indicators, which came into effect this month, are intended to help better assess how South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SECAmb) and other ambulance services perform. These replace the previous Category B response time targets for non-life threatening emergencies.
The indicators include survival rates for people who collapse and stop breathing and the recovery rate of patients suffering heart attacks or strokes. (See below for full list of indicators).
While responding to 999 calls quickly remains extremely important to SECAmb, the Trust welcomes the greater focus on clinical outcomes. It has been calling for a long time that outcomes should be the driving factor for measuring success.
SECAmb's Director of Clinical Operations and Consultant Paramedic, Andy Newton said: "We have already taken significant steps in recent years to drive up improvements in clinical care by introducing innovations such as a new resuscitation technique and clinical pathways for stroke patients.
"Our cardiac arrest resuscitation rates are twice the national average and we are pleased performances such as this will play a far greater role in determining whether the service is judged to be serving its communities well.
"We also recognise, however, that it is still extremely important to respond to patients in a timely manner and we will continue to ensure that we provide a responsive and high-quality ambulance service to our communities."
Response times still play an important part of the new indicators and the current target of responding to at least 75 per cent of Category A life-threatening patients within 8 minutes remains.
However, the national target which stated ambulance trusts should reach 95% of certain non-life threatening emergencies within 19 minutes of a 999 call being made has been removed, as announced by the Government in December 2010. In the future, in addition to the new range of clinical outcome measures, Category B and C calls will also be separated in to four categories of non-life threatening calls and will receive a response of between 20 and 60 minutes depending on the severity of injuries.
Using the information provided by the 999 call, the most appropriate response will be provided. If the condition is life-threatening or serious an ambulance response will be sent and a face-to-face assessment will be made.
If the condition is less serious a telephone assessment will be made by a skilled ambulance clinician who will help direct the patient to the right care. This could be to a GP or community health service.
The new clinical quality indicators are:
Outcome of acute ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI - a type of heart attack)
Outcome from cardiac arrest - return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) at hospital
Outcome from cardiac arrest - survival to discharge
Outcome from stroke for ambulance patients
Ambulance calls closed with telephone advice or managed without transport to A&E (where clinically appropriate)
Re-contact rate following discharge of care (i.e. closure with telephone advice or following treatment at the scene)
Time to answer calls
Call abandonment rate
Service experience
Category A 8 minute response time
Time to treatment by an ambulance- dispatched health professional
