• Emerg Med J · Mar 2008

    Avoiding admissions from the ambulance service: a review of elderly patients with falls and patients with breathing difficulties seen by emergency care practitioners in South Yorkshire.

    • J T Gray and A Walker.
    • Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust (South), Fairfields, Moorgate Road, Rotherham S60 2BQ, UK. james.gray@yas.nhs.uk
    • Emerg Med J. 2008 Mar 1; 25 (3): 168-71.

    ObjectivesTo determine the true impact of emergency care practitioners (ECPs) on admissions relative to emergency department (ED) attendance.MethodsTwo groups of patients ringing 999 were studied: those classified as having breathing difficulties and elderly patients (>65 years) with a fall. Routinely collected data by Yorkshire Ambulance Service were compared with a historical comparison group from the local ED. Initial contact comparison was undertaken along with statistical analysis of secondary care attendance 28 days after initial contact with the ECP service.ResultsThe ECPs showed decreased rates of admission to hospital in both groups at initial contact and at 28 days (p<0.001 for those with breathing difficulties, p<0.05 for elderly patients with a fall).ConclusionsECPs help to prevent attendances and admissions by delivery of clinical care and assessment at point of access to health care beyond that traditionally provided by UK ambulance services. This study was limited in scope owing to the difficulties in ensuring an accurate comparison group.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…