Measurement for management: report of a pilot project to quantify ambulance misuse for managers of a Fife hospital.
Ambulance services appear to be under increasing pressure to provide a full range of services to the Community. It is important, therefore, that the service is appropriately utilised by patients. Health Service Managers, however, have little readily available information which identifies 'appropriate' utilisation. A simple technique is suggested to measure 'appropriateness' of utilisation of ambulances and a pilot survey of ambulance use by patients attending Dunfermline and West Fife Hospital Out-Patient clinics is described. In each case of ambulance use a panel of health professionals evaluated the 'appropriateness' of the patient having utilised this service. In the clinics surveyed, 91% of the sample of 328 patients did not use an ambulance to travel to clinics; in only two cases was use of the ambulance considered to be 'probably inappropriate'. Misuse of the ambulance service was minimal during this study. Health Service Managers have been provided with some evidence to refute suggestions of substantial, inappropriate use of the ambulance service.
D000367:Age Factors; D000552:Ambulances / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006300:Health Services Misuse / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012606:Scotland; D012737:Sex Factors