ASHICE

ASHICE is one of several mnemonic acronyms used by emergency medical services in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland to pass summarised advance details of a patient to the next group of persons or organisation dealing with them (others include ATMIST and CASMEET). In the English and Welsh NHSs the procedure is not used for non-critical patients on their eventual journey to hospital[1][2] but is used as standarocedure for handovers of patients before transport to hospital where a site or event is staffed by trained personnel of both paid or voluntary ambulance services. This procedure is in addition to written records of the patient's personal and medical details and any treatment or medication applied prior to transport to the hospital.

The word is treated as a noun by personnel (whether first aiders, community first responders or paramedics) who might refer to e.g. 'passing an ASHICE'. The purpose of an ASHICE message is to enable persons involved in the next stage of treatment to make an advance determination of the appropriate personnel and facilities to deal with a patient and the degree of urgency to be applied.

Meaning of the acronym

The acronym is used to pass all the most vital details of the patient to the receiving hospital in order to ensure staff have all the appropriate equipment and staff assembled and prepared.[3]

  • Age — Patient's age
  • Sex — Whether the patient is male or female
  • History — The immediate cause of injury or description of illness and any relevant preceding factors such as medical history and medicines taken or not taken
  • Injuries/illness — What injuries have been sustained, or what illness symptoms are presenting
  • Condition — Observations of the patient (pulse, BP etc.), interventions used (cannulation, intubation etc.)
  • Events leading up to (everything else)

In the British Red Cross and St John Ambulance the same acronym is used by First-Aiders in the stages between initial contact and handover (if any) to ambulance crew but the last letter is trained[4] as 'Everything Else'

References
  1. South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Trust Quality Account 2009 – 2010 http://www.nhs.uk/aboutNHSChoices/professionals/healthandcareprofessionals/quality-accounts/Documents/south-east-coast-ambulance-service-nhs-trust.pdf
  2. NHS Direct Wales - Standard Operating Procedure Hospital Pre-alert & Patient Handover http://www.wales.nhs.uk/sitesplus/862/opendoc/215354
  3. "Ambulance Technician Study". Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2006-06-14.
  4. 2015 Clinical Competence Assessment training material
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