Special button added to paramedics’ devices

ALL AREAS: Paramedics at South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) will become the first to alert other healthcare providers to a patient’s suspected or confirmed dementia at the push of a button.

The innovation – which will see a special dementia button added to paramedics’ electronic devices – will ensure people receive the care they need when arriving at hospital.

It forms part of a new £40,000 project being delivered by SCAS in partnership with the Universities

of Portsmouth and Southampton, and is funded by The Health Foundation Q Exchange programme.

When paramedics record a patient’s healthcare information on their electronic patient record, there is currently no dedicated place to record dementia.

Helen Pocock, senior research paramedic at SCAS, said: “Older people have a high usage of emergency ambulance services and dementia is a common condition affecting older people, impacting on all aspects of their care.

“We found that dementia could have been recorded in 16 different free-text fields on the electronic patient record, making it difficult for accurate data retrieval by other staff referring to the record and potentially meaning those patients do not receive the tailored onward care they need.

“To combat this, the clinicians we talked to suggested that a designated button would enable systematic recording of dementia, facilitating transfer of this key information to other services.”