ARID: A&E Data Exchange

Overview

Our data sharing programme between A&Es (Emergency Departments), community safety partnerships, public health and the police continues to be successful. The key elements of our system are the inclusion of geographically coded street and licensed premises locations and Linxs acting as the single point of contact between the hospital and local partners. The data also collects details of domestic abuse incidents.

This programme has involved creating a user-friendly Access database (ARID). This user-friendly database contains gathering information on the locations of incidents, including licensed premises, time of incident, weapons used and the relationship of the patient to the assailant. This information is then used to target partner agency resources towards problematic locations, times and groups of people.

The locational information has been highlighted by our clients as being the critical success factor of our system. The reception staff use simple to operate gazetteers to select the relevant street or pub location.

We train reception staff both on how to use the database but also the reason why the information is being collected. In addition we provide regular feedback to staff on how the data is being used. We also train analysts on using the data in the most effective way. The gazetteers provide a geographical reference for use in a GIS for quick analysis.

With the incorporation within the Emergency Department Core Dataset of many of these fields used  by ARID we now can also extract data from those systems. Where this is done we then clean the data using ARID to provide you with high quality intelligence with accurate locational information.

We have recently been re-commissioned to continue our programme in Devon and Cornwall, Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin and will re-start the programme in Hereford. This involves undertaking the data-exchange, providing additional analysis (including ad hoc reports such as into patterns of domestic abuse) and training staff and analysts. 

We now successfully use this approach at selected Minor Injuries Units in Devon and Cornwall. This collection from such units is particularly valuable in areas such as Cornwall where the A&E (or Emergency Department) is geographically distant from some parts of the county. 

The programme in Devon and Cornwall is commissioned by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner.

We would be delighted to talk to you about how we can assist your area with this data exchange in your area either in A&E or Minor Injuries Units. Our work will mean you can meet the government's commitment to sharing of assault data; meeting the Information Standard for Tackling Violence and the Emergency Department Core Dataset. Our work exceeds standards set by the College of Emergency Medicine and matches Home Office and Department of Health Guidance. In particular ARID, meets the Department of Health's Information Standard relating to assault data-sharing with Community Safety Partnerships. 

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