The latter procedure, involving repeat presentations, might be needed for overnight retention intervals.
Among hospitals, delay was caused by administrative hurdles (e.g. IRB approval, difficulty scheduling recruitment meetings), or the need for repeat presentations due to administrative turnover(Table 2).
Among the remaining 2174 presentations, there were 1997 index presentations (by 1178 male and 819 female clients), with 177 repeat presentations (for separate clinical episodes involving the same clients).
The key aspects of clinical management were then measured using all episodes of self-harm (including any repeat presentations by the same individual during the data collection period) in the 31 hospitals that were included in both studies.
A further potential outcome of this expanded focus is to provide direct resource benefits to hospitals by identifying strategies that can be adopted readily, and reduce unnecessary and repeat presentations, and associated costs.
Although patients were often referred to a dental service, knowledge about how the system worked and lack of feedback was the cause of some frustration among the participants, especially when they observed the same patients making repeat presentations.
