Please see the full guidance about prioritisation of 2 hour and 6 hour face to face assessments (at visits and appointments). This includes the clinical criteria for face to face assessment within 2 hours/ 6 hours, guidance about your triage documentation and how to arrange the appointment/ home visit.
Principles
- 6 hours is the default timeframe for all appointments and home visits triaged by IUC clinicians. It is clinically appropriate for the vast majority of patients requiring face to face assessment following triage in IUC to be seen within 6 hours. Please ensure that the case prioritisation is set to 6 hours when forwarding cases.
- This guidance complements the home visit policy, which defines patients who are eligible for home visits and those who are not.
- A home visit or appointment within 2 hours (urgent), is only appropriate if the patient is:
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- Either rapidly deteriorating
- And/ or acutely/ significantly distressed
- Or there is other pressing, urgent clinical need
- And an emergency/ 999 response is not required (IUC is not an emergency service, so emergency appointments or visits are never appropriate).
- This will ensure that 2-hour appointment and visiting capacity is reserved for patients who truly require this, and therefore improves patient care and safety in the service.
- Whether the face to face assessment is 2 hours or 6 hours, the service must ensure that 95% of patients’ consultations (visit or appointment) have started within the target timeframe.
- For patients seen at the Treatment Centre, please ensure that you enter the patient’s Adastra record when you call the patient through and remain within the case for the duration of your consultation.
- At a home visit, please ensure you click ‘start’ before seeing the patient. This ensures that the consultation start times are accurate.