Observational studyJournal of advanced nursing2026
Short Delays in Time to First Contact With Community Health Services and Risk of Emergency Hospital Attendance: Retrospective Observational Study.
Observational study in Journal of advanced nursing, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
aimTo explore whether a delay from referral to first contact with nurse-led community health services is associated with the likelihood of subsequent emergency department attendance.
designWe use individual linked administrative data on use of community health and hospital services. We identify a cohort of 343,721 individuals referred to community health services in England by their primary care provider in 2019. We then track their subsequent community healthcare contacts and emergency department attendances.
methodsWe exploit variation in the time to contact caused by weekend delays, which create longer times to first contact for people referred later in the working week. The main analysis compares patients referred on Thursday with those referred on Tuesday.
resultsWe show that 6.7% of patients referred on Thursday wait an extra two days for their first community contact relative to those referred on Tuesday. Despite this delay, we find no evidence that people referred on Thursday are more likely to have a subsequent emergency department attendance compared to those referred on Tuesday.
conclusionsWe do not find delayed community health services contact to be associated with an increased risk of emergency attendance amongst patients referred to community services by their primary care provider. This suggests that short delays in contact time are not detrimental for this group. IMPACT: Shifting care from hospital to community settings is a key priority for health systems internationally. In England, community health services face significant staffing shortages, limiting the extent to which services can be responsive and support the desired strategic shift. Our findings suggest that these constrained community providers could use their limited capacity to prioritise responding quickly to other patients without harming those referred via primary care. REPORTING
methodSTROBE guidelines. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: This study did not include patient or public involvement in its design, conduct, or reporting.
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