11,837 research outputs found
Evaluation of NHS Direct āāreferralāā to community pharmacists
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate a pilot scheme of referrals from a nurse-led telephone helpline (NHS
Direct) to community pharmacists.
METHODS: A multi-method approach, including analysis of routine data from NHS Direct, postal
surveys of NHS Direct callers, analysis of anonymised transcripts of calls, a postal survey of callers
referred to pharmacists, and face-to-face interviews with NHS Direct nurses.
SETTING: Essex, Barking and Havering.
KEY FINDINGS: During the first three months of the pilot scheme, 6% (1,995/31,674) of NHS Direct
calls triaged by nurses were logged as referred to pharmacists. This built on an existing foundation of
informal referral to pharmacists of 4%. There was no measurable change in callersā views of the
helpfulness of advice, enablement, or caller satisfaction associated with the scheme. Conditions sent
to pharmacists included skin rash, cough, sore throat, stomach pain, and vomiting and/or diarrhoea.
86% (54/63) of callers referred to pharmacists during the scheme felt the referral was very or quite
appropriate and 75% (48/64) attempted to contact a pharmacist. In general, those who did so found
the experience a positive one: 65% (31/48) spoke to the pharmacist, and 80% (28/35) of people
expressing an opinion were satisfied with the advice offered, but the lack of privacy in the pharmacy
was of some concern. Although routine data indicated high usage of the scheme, nurse referral of
callers to pharmacists declined over time. Their initial enthusiasm diminished due to concerns about
the appropriateness of guidelines, their lack of understanding of the rationale behind some referrals,
and the lack of feedback about the appropriateness of their referrals.
CONCLUSIONS: The evaluation of the pilot scheme has generated a range of recommendations for
the wider national roll-out of the scheme, including revision of the guidelines and review of NHS
Direct nurse training for referral to pharmacy. NHS Direct and pharmacists should consider how to
strengthen the system of pharmacist feedback to NHS Direct
Integrating community pharmacy and NHS Direct - pharmacists' views
AIM:To establish the views of community pharmacists on NHS Direct and its forthcoming integration with community pharmacy.
DESIGN: Postal questionnaire survey.
SUBJECTS AND SETTING: Pharmacists working in community pharmacies within the area of the NHS Direct Pharmacy pilot scheme - Essex, Barking and Havering.
RESULTS: The response rate to the postal survey was 72% (263/364). Most pharmacies were generally supportive of NHS Direct (80%) and the pharmacy scheme in principle (83%), although their experience of the scheme in practice was limited. Perhaps because of this, the majority of pharmacists were unsure as to whether NHS Direct was referring appropriately, or whether the pharmacy would be able to meet the needs of patients without further referral. Almost half believed that patients referred by NHS Direct should be seen in a quiet area, away from the counter. Over two-thirds of pharmacists were willing to accommodate an NHS Direct information point in their pharmacy, although space was an issue.
CONCLUSION: Overall the results of this study suggested that community pharmacists welcome their increasing involvement in the developing immediate care system. As the Government commitment in the NHS plan to integrate community pharmacy with NHS Direct becomes a reality across England and Wales over coming months the implications for pharmacists, in terms of workload and the adequacy of premises, will become clearer. Careful audit of the operation of the scheme will be essential
How helpful is NHS Direct? Postal survey of callers
NHS Direct, the new 24 hour telephone advice line
staffed by nurses, was established to āprovide easier
and faster information for people about health, illness
and the NHS so that they are better able to care for
themselves and their families.ā In March 1998, three
first wave sites started in Lancashire, Milton Keynes,
and Northumbria. As part of an extensive evaluation of
this new service, we surveyed callers to determine how
helpful they found the advice offered
Impact of NHS Direct on demand for immediate care: observational study
OBJECTIVES: To quantify the impact of NHS Direct on
the use of accident and emergency, ambulance, and
general practitioner cooperative services.
DESIGN: Observational study of trends in use of NHS
Direct and other immediate care services over 24
months spanning introduction of NHS Direct.
Setting Three areas in England in first wave of
introduction of NHS Direct, and six nearby general
practitioner cooperatives as controls.
SUBJECTS: All contacts with these immediate care
services.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Changes in trends in use
after introduction of NHS Direct.
Results NHS Direct received about 68 500 calls from
a population of 1.3 million in its first year of
operation, of which 72% were out of hours and 22%
about a child aged under 5 years. Changes in trends
in use of accident and emergency departments and
ambulance services after introduction of NHS Direct
were small and nonĀsignificant. Changes in trends in
use of general practitioner cooperatives were also
small but significant, from an increase of 2.0% a
month before introduction of NHS Direct to - 0.8%
afterwards (relative change - 2.9% (95% confidence
interval - 4.2% to - 1.5%)). This reduction in trend
was significant both for calls handled by telephone
advice alone and for those resulting in direct contact
with a doctor. In contrast, the six control cooperatives
showed no evidence of change in trend; an increase of
0.8% a month before NHS Direct and 0.9% after
(relative change 0.1% ( - 0.9% to 1.1%)).
CONCLUSION: In its first year NHS Direct did not reduce
the pressure on NHS immediate care services,
although it may have restrained increasing demand
on one important partāgeneral practitioners' out of
hours services
NHS Direct: consistency of triage outcomes
OBJECTIVES: To examine the consistency of triage outcomes by nurses using four types of computerised
decision support software in NHS Direct.
METHODS: 119 scenarios were constructed based on calls to ambulance services that had been
assigned the lowest priority category by the emergency medical dispatch systems in use. These
scenarios were presented to nurses working in four NHS Direct call centres using different computerised
decision support software, including the NHS Clinical Assessment System.
RESULTS: The overall level of agreement between the nurses using the four systems was āfairā rather than
āmoderateā or āgoodā (k=0.375, 95% CI: 0.34 to 0.41). For example, the proportion of calls triaged
to accident and emergency departments varied from 22% (26 of 119) to 44% (53 of 119). Between
21% (25 of 119) and 31% (37 of 119) of these low priority ambulance calls were triaged back to the
999 ambulance service. No system had both high sensitivity and specificity for referral to accident and
emergency services.
CONCLUSIONS: There were large differences in outcome between nurses using different software systems
to triage the same calls. If the variation is primarily attributable to the software then standardising on a
single system will obviously eliminate this. As the calls were originally made to ambulance services and
given the lowest priority, this study also suggests that if, in the future, ambulance services pass such
calls to NHS Direct then at least a fifth of these may be passed back unless greater sensitivity in the
selection of calls can be achieved
A sound card based multi-channel frequency measurement system
For physical processes which express themselves as a frequency, for example
magnetic field measurements using optically-pumped alkali-vapor magnetometers,
the precise extraction of the frequency from the noisy signal is a classical
problem. We describe herein a frequency measurement system based on an
inexpensive commercially available computer sound card coupled with a software
single-tone estimator which reaches Cram\'er--Rao limited performance, a
feature which commercial frequency counters often lack. Characterization of the
system and examples of its successful application to magnetometry are
presented.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl
Exploring the effect of changes to service provision on the use of unscheduled care in England: population surveys
Background
Unscheduled care is defined here as when someone seeks treatment or advice for a health problem without arranging to do so more than a day in advance. Recent health policy initiatives in England have focused on introducing new services such as NHS Direct and walk in centres into the unscheduled care system. This study used population surveys to explore the effect of these new services on the use of traditional providers of unscheduled care, and to improve understanding of help seeking behaviour within the system of unscheduled care.
Methods
Cross-sectional population postal surveys were undertaken annually over the five year period 1998 to 2002 in two geographical areas in England. Each year questionnaires were sent to 5000 members of the general population in each area.
Results
The response rate was 69% (33,602/48,883). Over the five year period 16% (5223/33602) 95%CI (15.9 to 16.1) of respondents had an unscheduled episode in the previous four weeks and this remained stable over time (p = 0.170). There was an increased use of telephone help lines over the five years, reflecting the change in service provision (p = 0.008). However, there was no change in use of traditional services over this time period. Respondents were most likely to seek help from general practitioners (GPs), family and friends, and pharmacists, used by 9.0%, 7.2% and 6.3% respectively of the 5815 respondents in 2002. Most episodes involved contact with a single service only: 7.0% (2363/33,602) of the population had one contact and 2% (662/33602) had three or more contacts per episode. GPs were the most frequent point of first contact with services.
Conclusion
Introducing new services to the provision of unscheduled care did not affect the use of traditional services. A large majority of the population continued to turn to their GP for unscheduled health care
Applications of radio interferometry to navigation
Radio astronomy experiments have demonstrated the feasibility of making precise position measurements using interferometry techniques. The application of this method to navigation and marine geodesy is discussed, and comparisons are made with existing navigation systems. The very long baseline technique, with a master station, can use either an artificial satellite or natural sources as position references; a high-speed data link is required. A completely ship-borne system is shown to be feasible, at the cost of poorer sensitivity for natural sources. A comparison of Doppler, delay and phase-track modes of operating a very long baseline configuration is made, as that between instantaneous measurements and those where a source can be tracked from horizon to transit. Geometric limitations in latitude and longitude coverage are discussed. The characteristics of natural radio sources, their flux, distribution on the sky, and apparent size are shown to provide a limit on position measurements precision. The atmosphere and frequency standard used both contribute to position measurement uncertainty by affecting interferometric phase
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