Identifying avoidable switchboard delays in England's NHS hospitals: phase one of the national SWITCH project
Ghelani, R.; Maclean, E.; Adra, M.; Anderson, S.; Arora, A.; Aylward, C.; Bindra, H.; Carter, C.; Denning, M.; Dib, N.; Egan, S.; Ganis, L.; Illing, H.; Kerwat, D.R.; Knight, M.; Maden, S.; Murphy, M.; Myers, S.; Mootein, G.; Penicott, H.; Rooney, M.C.; Seehra, H.; Shams, F.; Yauwan, D.; Yogarajah, R.; Zhu, H.
Acute Medicine 18(4): 210-215
2019
ISSN/ISBN: 1747-4884 PMID: 31912051 Document Number: 18009
Inter-hospital communication frequently requires mediation via a switchboard. Identifying and eliminating switchboard inefficiencies may improve patient care. All 175 acute hospital switchboards in England were contacted six times. Call contents and duration were recorded. No clinician calls or bleeps were connected. The mean delay before contacting a switchboard operative was 55±46 seconds. 115 hospitals (66%) used automated switchboards; 34 of these (30%) had infection control messages. Robot operators introduced an additional 40 second delay versus humans (mean 70.3±28 versus 29.8±23 seconds, p<0.0001). Multivariate analysis identified robot operators (HR 5.1, p<0.0001) and infection control messages (HR 2.9, p=0.003) as predictors of delays over 60 seconds. There are significant avoidable delays in contacting switchboard operatives across England. Quality improvement is underway.
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