ArticleJournal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A, (Statistics in Society)2009
Hitting and missing targets by ambulance services for emergency calls: effects of different systems of performance measurement within the UK.
Article in Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A, (Statistics in Society), 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed.
- Seven lessons for financial incentivisation schemes in healthcare: a qualitative study of NHS Resolution's Maternity Incentive Scheme.Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · 2026Article
- Application of the Analytical Hierarchy Process in the management of private ambulance care systems in three selected European countries: a strategic decision-making framework.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Managing High Frequency of Ambulance Calls in Hospitals: A Systematic Review.Risk management and healthcare policy · 2024Review
- Beyond Targets: Measuring Better and Rebuilding Trust Comment on "Gaming New Zealand's Emergency Department Target: How and Why Did It Vary Over Time and Between Organisations?"International journal of health policy and management · 2021Article
- Gaming New Zealand's Emergency Department Target: How and Why Did It Vary Over Time and Between Organisations?International journal of health policy and management · 2020Article
- Large-scale health system transformation in the United Kingdom.Journal of health organization and management · 2020Article
- Lessons learnt from the implementation of new care models in the NHS: a qualitative study of the North East Vanguards programme.BMJ open · 2019Article
- Development and implementation of a geographical area categorisation method with targeted performance indicators for nationwide EMS in Finland.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2018Article
- Experimental Simulation-Based Performance Evaluation of an SMS-Based Emergency Geolocation Notification System.Journal of healthcare engineering · 2017Article
- Devolution and health in the UK: policy and its lessons since 1998.British medical bulletin · 2016Review
- Accountable to whom, for what? An exploration of the early development of Clinical Commissioning Groups in the English NHS.BMJ open · 2013Article
- Improving quality and safety of care using "technovigilance": an ethnographic case study of secondary use of data from an electronic prescribing and decision support system.The Milbank quarterly · 2013Article
- What counts? An ethnographic study of infection data reported to a patient safety program.The Milbank quarterly · 2012Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Following devolution, differences developed between UK countries in systems of measuring performance against a common target that ambulance services ought to respond to 75% of calls for what may be immediately life threatening emergencies (category A calls) within 8 minutes. Only in England was this target integral to a ranking system of 'star rating', which inflicted reputational damage on services that failed to hit targets, and only in England has this target been met. In other countries, the target has been missed by such large margins that services would have been publicly reported as failing, if they had been covered by the English system of star ratings. The paper argues that this case-study adds to evidence from comparisons of different systems of hospital performance measurement that, to have an effect, these systems need to be designed to inflict reputational damage on those that have performed poorly; and it explores implications of this hypothesis. The paper also asks questions about the adequacy of systems of performance measurement of ambulance services in UK countries.
Identifiers
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.