Avoiding Attendance and Admission in Long Term Conditions

08 - 12 September 2018 NIHR CLAHRC AAA Team presenting their research at EUSEM 2018: 12th European Emergency Medicine Congress, Glasgow, United Kingdom

Suzanne Mason: Are more experienced clinicians better able to tolerate uncertainty and manage risks: A vignette study of doctors in three NHS emergency departments in England. 
Emergency Department closure – the effect on local populations and emergency health services. Findings from the ‘closED’ study. 
Colin O'Keeffe: Are patients ‘on the doorstep’ of emergency departments more likely to use them for non-urgent visits: An observational study
Susan Croft: Analysis of the distribution of time that different cohorts of patients spend in Emergency Departments. Studying the potential impact of applying the 4 hour standard to urgent health problems only.
An overnight effect rather than a weekend effect? - Exploring patterns of Emergency Department attendances during weekdays, weekends and night time.
Suzanne Ablard: Pathways of care for adult mental health Emergency Department attendances - Analysis of routine data ('Best Young Abstracts' section.
Examining the proportion of preventable acute alcohol related Emergency Department attendances - Analysis of routine data.
Jamie Miles: Thinking on scene: Using vignettes to assess the accuracy and rationale of paramedic decision making.
Economic evaluation of a community based intervention for epilepsy patients to avoid the emergency department.

AAA featured in the Yorkshire Post: A quarter of walk-in patients at A&E units in Yorkshire demand treatment for minor ailments, new research has found.

Experts say many could be treated at GP surgeries, urgent care centres or even stay at home rather than seek help for non-urgent complaints - putting further demands on already hard-pressed casualty staff. But the study also uncovered evidence pressures in “overstretched” parts of the NHS could be driving patients to casualty units, with surveys suggesting half of arrivals had been told to attend by other health staff. 


Perspectives on the reasons for Emergency Department attendances across Yorkshire and the Humber Final Report |September 2017

This report is based on a project funded by the British Medical Association (BMA) in collaboration with the National Institute for Health Research, Collaboration and Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care, Yorkshire and Humber (NIHR CLAHRC YH): Avoiding Attendances and Admissions Theme (AAA). The aim of the research was to identify patient and staff perspectives on the reasons for attendances at Emergency Departments (ED) across Yorkshire and the Humber. The work was undertaken from February 2016 to September 2016. The NIHR CLAHRC YH: AAA Theme is undertaking a five year programme of work to better understand the reasons for rising attendances and admissions in the Yorkshire and Humber Region and investigate and pilot interventions to reduce avoidable attendances and admissions in the region. 

Event Wednesday 21 June 2017 12:00 – 16:00

Strategies and solutions for urgent and emergency and care

The Source Skills Academy, Meadowhall, S9 1EA

Our Theme is holding a half day event to:

1) Showcase the findings of their routine linked data analysis and evaluation projects in emergency and urgent care.

2) Identify key interventions and strategies in emergency and urgent care (EU

C) settings which have the potential to address some of the problems facing the system, such as rising demand and an ageing population with complex needs, and should be the focus of further evaluation.

Central to the event will be presentations on key work and analysis from our large data linkage studies examining pathways of care through the EUC system (pre-hospital 999/111 and acute hospital) for key patient groups, including:

  •        Frail older people
  •         Avoidable admissions
  •        Non-urgent ED attenders
Workshops will also be held in which delegates will be invited to consider the evidence presented by the theme and identify key interventions which will most likely have the greatest impact on reducing strain on the emergency and urgent care centre.

Please find the programme for the day here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6gjelMQZVL8bFozSXpkNEJIMTg/view?usp=sharing

For further information please contact: Ric Campbell r.j.campbell@sheffield.ac.uk


20 March Sue Mason comments on AAA in The Times, Helplines needlessly send a million to A&E (paywall)


03 November 2016 Center for URgent an Emergency care research (CURE) Launch Event, ScHARR, University of Sheffield

20 - 22 September 2016 Royal College of Emergency Medicine Conference





14 June 2016 Sue Mason giving a talk on the Acute Care of the Elderly at SMACC 2016 (Dublin).

01 March 2016 Poster 'Evaluation of a Triage Intervention for Ambulance Service Patients with Mental Health Problems' by A.Irving, R.O’Hara, M.Johnson (University of Sheffield),  A.Harris, K.Baker (YAS NHS Trust) won best prize for 'research most likely to affect practice' at EMS999 Conference 2016.


23 February 2016 NIHR CLAHRC YH Avoiding Attendance and Admission project team is presenting their research at EMRiS Research Day (ScHARR, University of Sheffield). The themes of the event are: Developing Research Collaborations and Developing the Next Generation of Researchers.  

17 November 2015 Advisory Group Meeting: Avoiding Attendance and Admission in LTC theme, NIHR CLAHRC YH. This AG meeting is focused on routine data analysis work. The project research team has received service data from all participating Trusts. Data linkage and data analysis process is currently under way.

22 October 2015 Sue Mason presented our theme to Yorkshire and Humber Strategic Board: "First regional comprehensive dataset of EUC: A research platform of routine ‘big data’ to inform research and service redesign."

Sue Mason spoke about the challenges facing the Emergency Department.


13 October 2015 The AEC conference, London

Beyond the Directory - the Sheffield Model: Susan Croft spoke about  some of the challenges of developing Ambulatory Emergency Care in a large, split site, super-specialised Trust and going beyond the traditional clinical pathway model of Ambulatory Emergency Care to assess and measure further opportunities.

28-30 September 2015 RCEM Annual Scientific Conference

AAA team presenting posters and talks  

AAA Team at RCEM Conference 2015

April 2015 New collaborations: 

1. A joint project with Yorkshire Ambulance Service around Mental Health Triage: 3-4 months evaluation of MH nurses operating in a control centre at YAS to reduce transport rates and subsequent visits to hospitals. 

Principal investigator: Dr Rachel O’Hara, ScHARR, The University of Sheffield 

2. A joint project with Doncaster Royal Infirmary around ambulatory care-related conditions and developing ambulatory care pathways. 

Principal investigator: Professor Sue Mason, ScHARR, The University of Sheffield

25 March 2015 The Royal College of Emergency Medicine – Annual Spring CPD Event

Sue Mason, Professor of Emergency Medicine, ScHARR, The University of Sheffield: “Top Ten papers from 2014” and “Managing anticoagulated patients following head injury: The AHEAD Study”

18 March 2015 Best Practice & Research in the ED: Focus on Senior Doctor Triage

Best Practice and Research in the ED - Flyer

AHSN workshop for ED consultants and staff to instigate a round-table discussion about Senior Doctor Triage. The Workshop also covers topics of NIHR CLAHRC YH Avoiding Attendance

Emergency departments are facing unprecedented pressures.  There is no easy ‘quick fix’ to deal with the challenges the urgent care system is facing nor a ‘on- size-fits-all‘ solution but with an increase in patient demand and limited resources and capacity, the need to manage and improve Emergency Department throughput has never been greater. and Admission in LTC theme

21 January 2015 CEM Academic Trainee Day. Sue Mason, Professor of Emergency Medicine, University of Sheffield "The role of the College in supporting EM academic trainees"

6 January 2015 Advisory Group Meeting: Avoiding Attendance and Admission in LTC theme, NIHR CLAHRC YH 

16 December 2014 Ki​ng's Fund Urgent and Emergency Care Conference Sue Mason, Professor of Emergency Medicine, University of Sheffield "Redesigning Emergency Care"

9 December 2014 Professor Sue Mason on Radio Four

9 December 2014 Oxford Research Day. Sue Mason, Professor of Emergency Medicine, University of Sheffield "Research in the ED" 

​1 December 2014 ScHARR Emergency Admissions Conference

Theme Lead - Professor Sue Mason s.mason@sheffield.ac.uk

Theme manager - Colin O'Keeffe c.okeeffe@sheffield.ac.uk