What do ambulance service personnel perceive to be the process of and issues with inter-hospital transfers?

This study was undertaken to investigate perceptions and experiences of ambulance service personnel who are involved in the inter-hospital transfer (IHT) process. The IHTs that were examined involved non-critical and immediate care transfers. From the literature it is clear that this is an under-researched area of ambulance service work. The study presented here adds to our understanding of the issues and barriers that ambulance service personnel experience when undertaking their role within the IHT process.

The literature review focused solely on works related to the purpose of the study outlined in the previous paragraph. MEDLINE, EMBASE and COCHRANE were the databases used for the four literature searches undertaken; a total of 28 articles were identified as relevant to this study.

Barratt (2012) undertook a systematic review of IHTs that focused on UK-based intensive care patients. Although Barratt examined a different patient transfer cohort from the one assessed for this article, some key areas of crossover have been identified, such as failure of IHT ‘co-ordination’ and ‘education’, due to limited knowledge surrounding transfers decisions and the ‘haphazard’ approach to education. Another systematic review, undertaken by Hains et al (2010), identified 12 papers across seven countries that demonstrated how little attention has been paid to immediate transfers of non-emergency patients. The review determined patient safety can become compromised due to poor IHT standardisation and failures of the overall communication processes.