Interreg Diabetes CPM: Unscheduled Care in Diabetes- Community Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Development of a revised care pathway to reduce unscheduled care in people with diabetes based on analysis of current ambulance guidelines
IRAS ID
266124
Contact name
Vivien Coates
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Ulster University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 2 months, 24 days
Research summary
This study is part of a larger multi-phased study which is part of the Interreg European Research Programme and the Centre for Personalised Medicine: Clinical Decision Making and Patient Safety (CPM). This project is a cross border project in collaboration with Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland. This research aims to look at the clinical decision making process undertaken by paramedics when attending a diabetes related call out and deciding whether to transport them to hospital or leave them at home. Document analysis will compare the existing care pathway and guidelines for ambulance services attending to adults with hypoglycaemia seeking unscheduled care in the study sites and explore if any potential changes could be beneficial to improve ‘treat and leave’ guidelines for hypoglycaemia and reduce the number of people who are conveyed to hospital for treatment. Database analysis will look at the characteristics of people who have required an ambulance call out for a diabetes related issue. Case study interviews will aim to determine which factors influence a paramedics decision to leave patients at home or transport them to hospital and what would be needed to encourage them to leave patients at home to reduce unnecessary hospital transports and subsequent admissions. Co-design workshops will be used to develop recommendations for revised guidelines drawing on the knowledge and experience of participants, combined with previous finding in the study. Stakeholder focus groups will present the results of the study and determine the feasibility of the revised guidelines.
Ethical approval is not being sought for the document analysis or the database analysis, it is just provided in this section to give completeness of the study.REC name
North West - Greater Manchester East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/NW/0291
Date of REC Opinion
7 Jul 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion