Evaluation of Unscheduled Care Coordination Hubs
ARC Yorkshire and Humber collaboration with Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Science Network
Unscheduled Care Coordination Hubs (UCCHs) provide access to timely unscheduled care in the community for patients who have immediate care needs and are at risk of ambulance transfer to hospital. UCCHs provide the potential for more timely and appropriate care in or close to the patients’ home, avoiding unnecessary conveyance to hospital with the benefits of reducing ambulance wait times, ED crowding and avoidable admission.
Funded by the National Insights Priority Programme (NIPP), a collaboration between the ARC YH and YH AHSN has undertaken a national evaluation to produce a rapid insights to inform future implementation of the UCCH model.
More information regarding the features of the Unscheduled Care Co service is available on the Care Coordination Guidance document here.
Information providing guidance for systems interested in implementing the implementation process for Unscheduled Care Co service, evaluated as part of the ARC YH/YHAHSN NIPP Programme Evaluation is available to download here.
Care Coordination - A short video of staff describing the work of the Unscheduled Care Coordination service can be viewed below or via this link.
Care Coordination Service overview video.mp4Project description
NHS England and Improvement ECIST piloted the UCCH in North Staffordshire and rolled out the model in Wolverhampton & Norwich. ARC YH has undertaken an evaluation in the three pilot sites, as well as evaluating the implementation of the model in the a new site in the East Midlands. The key elements to the project area were:
Evaluating the patient activity and referral patterns of the three pilot sites .
Interviewing key clinical and non-clinical UCCH staff and staff from other services referring into the hubs, to understand their perceptions and experiences of the model.
Evaluating and supporting implementation work underway in the new YH hub site.
Findings from the above work assessed the overall success and impact of the UCCH models. A Rapid Insights Guide for adoption and implementation of the model will be produced, providing flexible guidance to reflect different system configurations.
This exciting project is delivering rapid evidence to inform the future development of models of unscheduled care in the community, at a crucial time as NHS services and staff attempt to increase the resilience of UEC services.
Further contact
For more information on this project, contact Colin O’Keeffe on c.okeeffe@sheffield.ac.uk.