An evaluation of the impact of High-Intensity Specialist-Led Acute Care (HiSLAC) on emergency admissions to NHS hospitals at weekends.
The HiSLAC project is funded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR-HS&DR Programme Commissioned call 12/128: Organisation & delivery of 24/7 healthcare).
HiSLAC is an independent, professionally-led study which will evaluate a key component of NHS England’s policy drive for 7-day services: the intensity of specialist-led care of emergency medical admissions, with a particular focus on weekend provision. This research is important for patients and for NHS strategy because it offers a unique opportunity to evaluate the impact of the transition to seven-day working, and to understand factors likely to impede or enhance the effectiveness of this change in practice.
In addition to examining the impact on patient-centred outcomes, the project will also undertake a health economics analysis of the impact of increasing specialist provision across the NHS. HiSLAC will therefore provide useful information across the NHS about the cost-effectiveness of investing in consultant and other specialist staffing in implementing the drive to 7-day service provision.
The decision on award of funding was made in September 2013 and the project launched in February 2014. This website will be updated over the coming weeks and months as the project progresses.
Due to recent bed pressures patients are often sent from the Acute Medical Unit to the wards without a consultant review, and in some cases without a registrar review.
On the wards it is ‘pot luck’ whether the patient is seen by a consultant the following day or a few days down the line.
Once the patient is identified under the correct team it depends on which day a consultant does their ward rounds, which means a delay up to 5-6 days.
The patient was an outlier; no one knew the patient and wanted to take any responsibility.
– Reflections of a Foundation Year 1 trainee, January 2013
Rolling News
- THANK YOU: MORE THAN 14,200 TAKE PART IN FINAL HISLAC SURVEYMore than 14,200 consultants and associate specialists completed the fifth and final survey to help create a nationwide ‘snapshot’ of specialist intensity and 7-day services. The latest figure takes the …
- New paper published: Sicker patients account for the weekend mortality effect amongst adult emergency admissions to a large hospital trustHiSLAC’s latest study, “Sicker patients account for the weekend mortality effect amongst adult emergency admissions to a large hospital trust” has now been published in BMJ Quality and Safety. Analysing …
- LATEST 7-DAY SERVICES STUDIES NOW AVAILABLEday NHS studies. HiSLAC’s latest study, Quality and safety of in-hospital care for acute medical patients at weekends: a qualitative study, has been published in BMC Health Services Research. The …
- Mortality rate ‘weekend effect’ not a reliable measure of care quality in hospitalsNew review shows 16% higher chance of mortality for weekend hospital admissions compared with weekday admissions, but rates vary depending on whether admission was emergency, maternity or elective (i.e. surgery) …
HiSLAC Tweets
HiSLAC
Written on Thursday, 18 June 2020
HiSLAC PI Prof Julian Bion features in this month’s @TheDrMagazine in his role as Freedom to Speak up Guardian… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
HiSLAC
Written on Thursday, 09 January 2020
“The search for the cause of the #weekendeffect clearly needs to include community services…it is the whole patie… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
HiSLAC
Written on Thursday, 02 January 2020
Read HiSLAC PI, Prof Julian Bion’s editorial, “Weekend effect: complex metric for a complex pathway”… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
HiSLAC
Written on Tuesday, 24 December 2019
Merry Christmas from all the HiSLAC team!