The EDARA study

Evaluating the Diversion of Alcohol-Related Attendances.

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Background

This project evaluated the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, efficiency and acceptability of Alcohol Intoxication Management Services (AIMS) in managing alcohol-related Emergency Departments’ attendances. AIMS is designed to receive, treat and monitor intoxicated patients who would normally attend Emergency Departments and to lessen the burden that alcohol misuse places on unscheduled care.

They are usually located close to areas characterised by excessive intoxication and are open at times when levels of intoxication peak (eg Friday and Saturday evenings). AIMS therefore offer the potential to mitigate some of the pressures on Emergency Departments as well as ambulance services and the police at times when there is a sustained increase in demand.

999EMS forum Advancing patient care: taking research to the front line (1 - 2 April 2019)


Aims

The project aimed to

  • explore barriers and facilitators of AIMS implementation from the perspective of frontline staff by examining the impact of AIMS on the frontline work setting and on practitioners’ working lives
  • identify the key ingredients required for the successful implementation of AIMS in order to lead the co-production of guidance on AIMS development and implementation
  • establish the acceptability of AIMS to users
  • investigate how the implementation of AIMS affects Emergency Departments users’ experience
  • determine the effect of AIMS implementation on key performance indicators across health and ambulance services
  • consider secondary effects of AIMS implementation such as ambulance response times and reduction in violent assaults through increased police presence
  • identify set-up and running costs for AIMS, resolve costs by sector (health, ambulance and police), before, during and after AIMS setup, and quantify AIMS benefits in order to establish the cost-effectiveness of AIMS

Funding

The project is funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research Programme. It started in January 2016 and ran for 30 months with £925,000 funding.


Staff

Name Title Organisation
Professor Simon Moore Principal Investigator School of Dentistry, Cardiff University
Professor Davina Allen Co-investigator School of Healthcare Sciences, Cardiff University
Professor Petra Meier Co-investigator Divison of Population Health, University of 91̽»¨
Professor Steve Goodacre Co-investigator Divison of Population Health, University of 91̽»¨
Professor Alan Brennan Co-investigator Divison of Population Health, University of 91̽»¨
Professor Alicia O’Cathain Co-investigator Divison of Population Health, University of 91̽»¨
Dr Vaseekaran Sivarajasingam Co-investigator School of Dentistry, Cardiff University
Professor Jonathan Shepherd Co-investigator School of Dentistry, Cardiff University
Dr Tracey Young Co-investigator Divison of Population Health, University of 91̽»¨
Andy Irving Co-investigator Divison of Population Health, University of 91̽»¨
Dr Penny F Buykx Co-investigator Divison of Population Health, University of 91̽»¨
Andy Irving Project Manager Divison of Population Health, University of 91̽»¨
Dr Yu-Chiao Wang Project Manager School of Dentistry, Cardiff University
Clare Olson Administrative Assistant School of Dentistry, Cardiff University
Joanne Blake Research Associate School of Healthcare Sciences, Cardiff University

Downloads

EDARA 999EMS Forum 2019 poster (PDF, 321KB)

Emergency Department survey 2017 sampling declaration form (Word, 22KB)

EDARA ED survey instruction manual (Word, 1.3MB)

EDARA ED Survey 2017(Word, 76KB)

EDARA ED Survey 2017 first mailing letter (Word, 45KB)

EDARA ED Survey reminder letter (Word, 43KB)

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