Emergency admission risk stratification tools in UK primary care: a cross-sectional survey of availability and use (1 October 2020)

Summary

This cross-sectional survey in the British Journal of General Practice looks at the availability and use of emergency admission risk stratification (EARS) tools across the UK and aims to identify factors that influence their implementation.

The authors identified 39 different EARS tools in use. They found that the most important factors in encouraging general practices to use EARS tools were:

• promotion by NHS commissioners
• involvement of clinical leaders
• engagement of practice managers.

High workloads and information governance were significant barriers to their use. The authors highlight the need to align policy and practice with research evidence.