Telephone triage of critical illness using NHS Pathways (v1).
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Telephone triage identification of potential critical illness using NHS Pathways.
IRAS ID
255767
Contact name
Suzanne Mason
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Sheffield
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
NEAS/2018/255767, North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 27 days
Research summary
In 2018 NHS Pathways (NHSP) - the decision support system from NHS Digital used for telephone triage by NHS 111 and five 999 Ambulance Services in England - introduced new clinical triage algorithms to identify cases of potential critical illness, including conditions such as sepsis. \n\nThis study aims to examine if NHSP can identify cases of potential critical illness with enough sensitivity and specificity, measured by equivalence with the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) acuity. This is to understand if the new triage algorithms can identify persons at risk of clinical deterioration from an illness and in need of emergency care without over-triage to the finite resources of the emergency ambulance service.\n\nThe study is to be based upon a sample of adults (16 years +) triaged by the new algorithms following a 111 or 999 call received by the North East Ambulance Service NHS FT (NEAS) and were subsequently sent an emergency ambulance for potential critical illness, or were referred to other lower urgency care settings, e.g. GP, or were managed with self-care advice.\n\nThe retrospective sample will be 111 or 999 callers within the South Tees CCG postcode area and who may have attended the James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough (JCUH) within 12 hours of first 111/999 contact, subject to inclusion and exclusion criteria.\n\nThe study will compare NHSP triage to an ambulance response against the initial NEWS recorded by the attending NEAS ambulance clinician as an objective measure of acuity.\n\nThe study will also compare NHSP triage to a non-ambulance care disposition against any subsequent attendance or admission at JCUH within 12 hours of the first 111 or 999 call, and the initial NEWS recorded by the hospital.\n\nThe student conducting this study is a registered paramedic, employed by NHS Digital, who was involved in the clinical development of the critical illness algorithms.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/YH/0076
Date of REC Opinion
21 Mar 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion