Understanding 999 use & hospital admissions of Case Managed patients
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding the use of emergency services and hospital admissions for patients of the case management programme: West Midlands qualitative case study
IRAS ID
209930
Contact name
Eloise Phillips
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Birmingham City University
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 28 days
Research summary
The British government implemented the NHS and Social Care long-term conditions model in 2005; the ‘Case management programme.’ The priority actions for this community nursing service was to reduce hospital admissions, assist with the ageing demographic and those with long term conditions living at home. The evaluation of the two-year pilot programme indicated that the service had not reduced hospital admissions, but that it was appreciated by the patients and carers who valued the service in other ways such as the case manager’s clinical skills and availability. In 2013, a £50 million pilot scheme was announced to extend the hours of primary healthcare over growing concerns of the burden on Accident & Emergency (A&E) and speculation that the operating hours of primary care were forcing patients to overuse A & E services out-of-hours. This rose questions as to whether this picture applied to patients of the case management programme and to examine the patterns of this populaces’ use of emergency services, A & E and hospitals. An earlier study found that a greater proportion of case managed patients attended A & E during the hours of 00:00 and 08:59, predominantly arrived via emergency services and had a fivefold higher A&E conversion rate in comparison to the general population.
This study aims to address questions as to the reasons why, when and how case management patients utilise emergency services, attend A&E and are admitted to hospital from the key stakeholders perspective, conducting semi structured interviews with patients (study one) and carers (study two) and conducting focus groups with case managers (study three) in one large Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust in the West Midlands. Understanding the possible causes of these patterns could guide better care provision across all sectors and services, which this patient group may access.REC name
East Midlands - Leicester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/EM/0325
Date of REC Opinion
6 Sep 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion