Using video to explore context and communication in urgent ‘primary care sensitive’ health encounters: a pilot study using body-worn video badges to investigate admission decisions

Use of urgent and emergency healthcare services has been increasing every year for over a decade. It appears that a combination of changing public attitudes/expectations, and how services are organised both play a part. People seek urgent health advice and treatment in a variety of ways, including through NHS111, via the emergency 999 service, or via their GP or out-of-hours primary care service. Our previous research suggests that the way patients and carers make decisions – particularly about which services to access - depends on a complex blend of personal circumstances. People may have specific expectations or ideas about the help they need depending upon how they view their situation, which may be different to the way health professionals or health services view the problem. It is important that we understand if there are issues other than medical need that might influence the choice of urgent care service and the outcomes – particularly whether hospital attendance is needed or not. These context issues can be very difficult to explore using established research methods. This research project will pilot the use of ‘video badges’, worn by urgent care health-professionals undertaking home visits, to explore how video data might help shed light on some of these issues. We aim to study the recordings to see if it is possible to make detailed observations about the way people explain their problems and needs. We aim to determine if a detailed study of the video recordings might help us understand more about the context of the request for treatment. Using video-badges in this way may help us better appreciate what leads up to a request for urgent care, how people express their own ideas and expectations, and how health professionals can better respond to these issues. 

Amount awarded:£10 506