From: Alison Watson
Sent: 25 February 2011 07:20
To: Neal Deans; Zoe packman; Mike Bailey; Alison Robertson; David Astley; Patrick Mitchell; Annette Bunka; Richard Eley; Chloe Cox; Fiona Ashworth; Peter Jenkinson; Trudi Kemp; Rosalind Given-Wilson; Suzanne Marsello; Jean-Pierre Moser; Alison Watson; Jan Beynon; Di Caulfeild-Stoker
Cc: Hazel Gleed
Subject: Director on-call re; KPI linked to LAS turnaround times

Dear All,

 

As part of the Exec on-call rota I would like to let you know about a KPI linked to the LAS turnaround times that you may get contacted about by the GM on call if we breach

 

 

There is a specified Key Performance Indicator that the LAS crew must attain when offloading patients in A&E which entails three key wait times

 

1. If an LAS ambulance waits more than 15 minutes to off load the A&E senior nurse is informed and with the consultant in charge will review the dept and try to create trolley space. They will also contact the bed management team to escalate the need to transfer patients from A&E asap

 

2. If an ambulance waits more than 30mins then the DDO for the day will be contact and out of hours this will be the GM on-call. Again the A&E team will be working closely with the bed management team to transfer patients to ward beds and out of A&E as soon as possible to free up trolley spaces.

 

3. If an ambulance waits over 60 minutes to off load this is declared as an SI and the A&E team will investigate accordingly.  At 45 minutes wait Patrick Mitchell will be contacted in hours and out of hours the Director on-call will be informed by the GM on call to ensure you are aware of the situation and the pressures not only on A&E but the site as a whole.

 

St Georges is very good at off loading ambulances quickly and timely and we have a very good relationship with the LAS.

 

However when we do have long waits to off load it is a good indication of how busy A&E is and tends to correlate with lack of beds and high numbers of DTAs (ie occurs when we have no space in A&E to place the patient on a trolley)

 

Obviously key for A&E is to maintain safety and thus if it is not safe to off load a patient from the LAS ambulance then the team will inform the LAS crew and work with them.  At this stage the A&E team will have been in touch with the LAS duty officer and it is likely they will already be on the scene.

 

To date we have only had long LAS waits on the 10-11th January when we were under significant pressure as a hospital for beds.

 

It should be a very rare occurrence that you are contacted as the On-call Director regarding LAS waits but if you want to discuss with me please do contact me

 

I have some documents explaining the rationale and procedure from LAS and happy to share if you are interested

 

Regards

Alison

 

 

 

Alison Watson

T: 020 8725 3324

ADDO A&E, Acute & Specialist Medicine.

F: 020 8725 2999

Medicine Division

E: alison.watson@stgeorges.nhs.uk

St. George's Healthcare NHS Trust

W: www.stgeorges.nhs.uk

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