Closing a Case after a Failed Contact
It may be appropriate to close a case following failure to contact a patient.
Failed contact policy
It is not uncommon to have difficulty getting through to a patient on the phone number listed and we have guidance to help support you in these situations. It is appropriate to check EMIS for other numbers and to cross check the number provided. You may also wish to check Connecting Care for hospital attendance. Please ensure you have called for at least 30 seconds, spaced at least 15 minutes apart. If there is no answer, please leave a voicemail and/or a text message. The operational team will also continue to try as well – you can see on the case if they have called and the number of failed contacts will show on the case in your queue (taking into account their and your calls).
Once we have reached 3 failed contacts (2 in escalation) then a clinical review should be undertaken.
The clinical review should include:
- Review of the NHS Pathways assessment (under the Pathways tab on CLEO, it is the 111 assessment) to understand more information about the reason for this contact , and whether red flags/ concerning features were present.
- Review the EMIS record for background issues which may increase the level of concern eg safeguarding concerns, acute illness, cognitive impairment.
- Guidance by the ICB BNSSG for vulnerable adults and children who ‘did not attend’ or ‘was not brought’ can be used in terms of risk stratification and this could form part of the management plan for closing a case (you can view this on the Radar Policy, link here and Remedy under Adult Safeguarding (Was not brought)).
Following this assessment of the case you can then determine if it is safe to close, or, if further advice is needed, please discuss with the Clinical Coordinator/ senior clinician for advice.
If the clinical decision is made to close the case, then a voicemail and/or text message should be left indicating that the case has been closed and the patient needs to call NHS 111/use NHS111 online again to initiate further action by Severnside, if they still require clinical advice.
What to do if the case isn't safe to close:
- If the case is safe to be left in the queue and continue with callbacks then please let the shift manager know, including the overnight period. They will unassign the case from you and the operational team will continue to try to make contact. Please also document your plan in the notes e.g clinically unsafe to close for X reason, to continue to attempt contact. Please consider sending the patient a text message with the patient line number if there are significant concerns.
- If there is a high clinical or safeguarding risk that needs more urgent assessment then please consider if a home visit needs to be arranged to review the patient.
- If it is an emergency and the patient needs an ambulance or police input then please call 999 as appropriate.
Please refer to the Failed Contact SOP in Radar, this includes information on:
- The definition of a failed contact
- The process for managing a failed contact
- The process for clinical review before closing a case
- Complex cases, where it may not be appropriate to close the case
- Failed contacts in escalation