Responses to a recurring admission alert system

Abstract

This article presents and discusses a service improvement project to introduce an automated alert system that notifies a nominated healthcare worker that a cancer patient has attended the emergency department (ED). The recurring admission patient alert (RAPA) system was introduced in one trust and alerts were sent and monitored for 16 weeks. During this period 155 alerts were received by eight clinical nurse specialists (CNSs) representing nine different tumour sites. At the same time a focus group was held with four of the CNSs. The RAPA system demonstrated a decrease in mean length of stay. The focus group highlighted that the system was integrated into the working lives of the CNSs. Further work is required to define the CNS role in the ED and also to share and spread the software to other specialties.