No (% of all pathways) | |
N=26 325 | |
Initial service contacted | |
Inpatient admission (A) | 2666 (10.1) |
Emergency department (E) | 6130 (23.3) |
NHS24 (N) | 4933 (18.7) |
Primary-care-out-of-hours (O) | 216 (0.8) |
Ambulance (S) | 12 380 (47.0) |
Directness of CUP* | |
Direct | 24 244 (92.1) |
Indirect | 2081 (7.9) |
Five most common direct pathways† | |
SEA | 7865 (29.9) |
EA | 5277 (20.1) |
SA | 3496 (13.3) |
NSEA | 2725 (10.4) |
A | 2641‡ (10.0) |
Five most common indirect pathways† | |
SSA | 169 (0.6) |
NSESA | 156 (0.6) |
NOSEA | 148 (0.6) |
NOEA | 103 (0.4) |
NOSA | 92 (0.4) |
Initial service contacted | No. (%) of CUPs which were direct |
Inpatient admission (A) | 2666 (100) |
Emergency department (E) | 5928 (96.7) |
NHS24 (N) | 3793 (76.9) |
Primary-care-out-of-hours (O) | 134 (62.0) |
Ambulance (S) | 5819 (94.9) |
*Direct pathway: the minimum number of steps between the first contact point chosen by the patient and inpatient hospital admission, eg, SEA is direct, NOSEA is indirect because Primary-care-out-of-hours cannot make a definitive diagnosis (no access to troponin testing).
†Pathways are sequences of UC events. For example, the pathway ‘SEA’ represents a sequence consisting of: ‘Scottish ambulance service’ (S) -> ‘Emergency department visit’ (E) -> ‘Inpatient admission’ (A). The pathway NOSEA represents ‘NHS24 call’ (N) -> ‘Primary-care-out-of hours attendance’ (O) -> Scottish ambulance service’ (S) -> ‘Emergency department visit’ (E) -> ‘Inpatient admission’ (A).
‡25 pathways had an initial contact with A but the patient had subsequent contacts with other services prior to a further admission, eg, ‘ASA’.
UC, unscheduled care.