Ambulance Responses to Falls Incidents in Queensland Residential Aged Care Facilities: Implications for Policy and Practice
Abstract
Objective: Ambulance services are increasingly relied upon to provide a vital emergency point-of-care health service to adults who fall while living in Residential Aged Care Facilities (RACFs). This study examined patterns of ambulance attendance to falls-related cases among people aged 65 years and over living in RACFs.
Methods: We conducted an exploratory, descriptive, retrospective case series study of Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) response data within a regional area of Queensland, Australia between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2023. We analysed demographic data, triage category and patterns of QAS attendance.
Results: There were 6663 QAS falls-related attendances during the study period for 3545 unique patients. Attendances increased significantly for the 3 years from 2021 (n = 1916) to 2023 (n = 2528), χ2(df = 2) = 84.35, p 2(df = 23) = 489.62, p 2(df = 23) = 182.15, p 2(df = 23) = 154.04, p 2(df = 23) = 195.22, p < 0.001).
Conclusions: The findings of this study identified an urgent need to address health system optimisation and resource allocation to provide timely and appropriate services to people living in RACFs. Future studies could provide further evidence about the increasing demands on ambulance resources and strategies to improve high-quality, person-centred care.
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a case series, done in people. Its evidence level is 5 of 5 (Very low · case / narrative / animal / in vitro / in silico). Case reports, narrative reviews, and animal, cell or computer-model studies give the weakest evidence for human health. Reported size: 3,545 participants or records.
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