Acute operational escalation operational levels in primary care

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Can Primary Care clusters benefit from adopting acute operational procedure escalation levels?

• IRAS ID

  254689

• Contact name

  Carol Westwell

• Contact email

  c.westwell@bangor.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Bangor University

• Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

  *, *

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 9 months, 25 days

• Research summary

  In order to research the question, one cluster will be identified to explore the potential benefits an escalation procedure similar to the process in secondary care, can bring to sustainability. The study will be explored through focus groups, one group with Practice Managers (PM) and one group with GP’s, all from the same cluster.
  The decision to use focus groups instead of an interview or questionnaire approach is related to the escalation procedure being a new way of working that involves all PM’s and GP’s from the identified cluster. In view of this, all participants opinions of how this process could be implemented requires a group discussion to establish the probability of success.
  In addition, the decision to split the PM’s and GP’s is to gain an understanding of how the escalation procedure will affect the practices from a business perspective and a clinical governance perspective. The two perspectives are equally as important and require time to discuss at length.
  5 specific questions will be presented to the two sample groups for them to discuss how this relates to them as a practice and a member of the cluster.
   Focusing on the escalation levels used in Secondary Care, Levels 1-4, and using the same theory for all 5 practices within the cluster, how do you think this could benefit the cluster when establishing an escalation level on a daily basis?
   Thinking about a challenging working day in your own practices, what support, if any, from the rest of the cluster would have benefitted you operationally to deliver your service more effectively that day?
   What are the facilitators to adopting a cluster escalation approach similar to that used in Secondary Care?
   What are the barriers to adopting a cluster escalation approach similar to that used in Secondary Care?
   Level 4 is the highest escalation level, meaning delivery of service is severely impacted. In your opinion, what would trigger the cluster to be at level 4 and what action could possibly be taken to support each other if this occurred?
  The focus groups will be audio recorded. The aspects of the discussions I will focus on will be themes around the barriers and facilitators to using operational pressure escalation levels in the cluster. These transcripts will be coded using analysis software.

• REC name

  N/A

• REC reference

  N/A