Emergency care

There is a possibility that front-line services, particularly out-of-hours services, are not accessible to some parents. The aim of this service evaluation was to gain a better understanding about visits to one emergency department (ED) in the south of England by children and their parents or carers. The specific focus was to elucidate the reasons behind frequent ED attendance and indicate a potential redesign of services.Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 parents.

Traumatic injury frequently leads to an abrupt change in physical and psychological functioning; informal caregivers play a significant role in the recovery process in the hospital and at home. The purpose of this study was to describe the range of stressors and burdens experienced by orthopedic trauma family caregivers in the acute care setting, as well as responses and strategies employed. Qualitative, in-depth interviews were conducted in the hospital with 12 family caregivers of severely injured orthopedic trauma patients.

In 2006 the Scottish Government provided just over £8 million to help 32 health and social care partnerships to develop telecare services. This paper presents a summary of the 2007-2008 evaluation of the Scottish Telecare Development. This evaluation focused on measuring overall program progress toward eight predefined Scottish Telecare Development objectives. Results indicate that the initial investment has resulted in significant savings to the health and social care sectors.