Paramedic's passion for patient care prevents unnecessary hospital stays

A paramedic working closely with a Norfolk hospital has improved the ambulance service’s care for its most frail patients and reduced their admission into accident and emergency departments.

Jaynie Sheen has helped hundreds of frail patients avoid unnecessary stays at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn.

Very frail patients can have a rapid decline after a stay in hospital, which can lead to sleep deprivation, increased risk of falls, infection and most importantly, general physical deconditioning.

The most frail patients have an in-patient mortality of up to 31% and a one-year mortality rate of 50%, so helping them stay out of hospital can have a profound effect on their life expectancy. 

The QEH has operated a Health Care Professional (HCP) telephone advice line for frail patients since 2017, but paramedic Jaynie Sheen has been instrumental in getting EEAST colleagues to use the service – educating colleagues on identifying and assessing frailty and how to get patients the right care. 

Jaynie also helped increase the frailty line hours to 8am to 8pm, seven days a week to reflect when the ambulance service saw the most patient need, and introduced a video phone to help make better decisions.

The result has been an overwhelmingly successful and has resulted in improving the quality of care and dignity provided by EEAST’s clinicians.

Jaynie said: “Over the last 18 months an average of over 80 calls per month are made to the frailty service.

“From these 80 calls over 50 patients per month avoid admission to hospital, not just on the day of the call but for up to 28 days afterwards - this is important as it shows we are making the right decision for that patient.  

“Those patients that are admitted through the frailty line receive specialist inpatient care and as a result, their length of stay has been reduced to below the national average.

“I feel incredibly privileged to be a part of this collaboration and will always support it to provide excellent patient care.”

Jaynie was recently nominated for EEAST’s Excellence in Patient Care award for her work.

Additional information

Results from the survey:

95% of EEAST’s West Norfolk staff have used the service

95% said it helped with their decision making

63% said they would have conveyed the patient to A&E prior to having the frailty service

85% said this service has been educational.