Patient and Staff Experience of Ambulatory Emergency Care on the Surgical Admissions Unit (SAU)

NCT03514043 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 1718/01
• Study Type: observational
• Target: 32
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Emergency ambulatory care ("day-case" care that does not involve staying in a hospital bed overnight) is now well-established for medical patients and is being used increasingly for surgical patients. However, it is not known how emergency surgical patients feel about being managed in this way compared to being admitted to a hospital ward. The investigating team believe that some people will find it easier and would prefer to be able to stay at home overnight but others may find this difficult or dislike this method of care. The investigators want to explore staff and patients' experience of this type of care with semi-structured telephone interviews. The interviews will take around 20-30mins each. The anticipated number of patient participants needed is 20 and 12-15 staff members.

Conditions

Emergencies; Surgery

Keywords

Ambulatory care; Emergency general surgery; Patient satisfaction

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Factors affecting patient satisfaction: semi-structured interviews

  Factors that influence patients' experience of emergency general surgical care \[semi-structured interviews with patients\]

  Will be measured within 3 weeks of attendance

• Factors affecting implementation of ambulatory emergency care

  Factors which affect how staff use ambulatory emergency care and what they perceive this issues to be with this method of care. This will be measured using semi-structured interviews with staff.

  Interviews will be conducted at a single timepoint from May 2019 to October 2019.

Study Arms (2)

Ambulatory care surgical patients

Patients who have attended the surgical assessment unit with an emergency general surgical condition and have their care completed without an inpatient stay.

Surgical assessment unit staff

Staff who are involved in the care of patients on the surgical assessment unit. This includes senior and junior doctors, nurses, healthcare assistants and ward receptionists.

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)
• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Adults presenting to the surgical assessment unit under the care of general surgeons who have their care managed in an ambulatory manner without inpatient admission. Staff who are involved in the care of these patients in the groups described in the group section.

You may qualify if:

• English-speaking adult patients of any gender over the age of 18 undergoing emergency ambulatory care via the surgical assessment unit for a general surgical condition will be included.

You may not qualify if:

• Children under the age of 18
• Adults without capacity to consent as participants for the study
• Those who have primarily presented with a condition that is not within the remit of general surgeons
• Those who had their care continued as an inpatient immediately following their initial presentation.
• Unable to understand or speak English to the level required to understand the information sheet or conduct the interview

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Exeter: lead
• Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Exeter, Devon, EX2 5DW, United Kingdom

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Emergencies; Patient Satisfaction

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Disease Attributes; Pathologic Processes; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Treatment Adherence and Compliance; Health Behavior; Behavior

Study Officials

• Lisa H Massey, MBBS (BSc)

  Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital NHS Trust

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: observational
• Observational Model: OTHER
• Time Perspective: PROSPECTIVE
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: April 13, 2018
• First Posted: May 2, 2018
• Study Start: November 5, 2018
• Primary Completion: October 2, 2019
• Study Completion: December 31, 2019
• Last Updated: November 10, 2021

Record last verified: 2021-11

Locations

GB (1)