NHS Pathways
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| Developer(s) | National Health Service of the United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Stable release |
March 2015 (10.0.0)
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| Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
| Website | systems |
NHS Pathways is a triage software utilised by the National Health Service of the United Kingdom to triage public telephone calls for medical care and emergency medical services - such as 999 or 112 calls - in some NHS trusts and five of the ambulance services in the country. In its emergency capacity, it has replaced the Advanced Medical Priority Dispatch System for some trusts, and in non-emergency telephone triage it is found in many medical care triage systems, such as NHS 111.
The system, born from a desire to reduce unnecessary call-outs for emergency services, and to reduce the instances of patients rebounding between care providers due to repeated re-triage, is designed to triage any health problem and refer to the appropriate service either within or without the service undertaking the triage. With an attached Capacity Management System, NHS Pathways is designed to factor in what services are available local to the patient when supplying care provision. In essence, the intention is that any health care problem can be triaged by any arm of the NHS - emergency or non-emergency - and can be directed to any possible health care provider without the need for a second triage on referral, or any delay.
As with many triage systems, NHS Pathways operates on a diagnosis of exclusion, excluding conditions based on a set of triage questions developed by clinicians of the Department of Health. Upon arriving at an illness or injury that cannot be excluded, the system directs the patient to the appropriate level of care for that condition. Theoretically, patients will receive a higher level of care than their actual condiction warrants on occasion, but should never receive a lower level. Unlike previous triage systems, in an emergency capacity NHS Pathways can lead the patient to doctor, nurse, emergency department, or home-care advice dispositions, whereas previous systems often merely led to various levels of ambulance response. The lack of such care providers in an area also highlights gaps in services for the NHS to review.
NHS Pathways is currently utilised in six ambulance services:
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