Experiences of falls in domestic settings and use of ambulance service
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Experiences of falls in domestic settings and use of ambulance services: an ethnographic study of patients who do not require admission to A&E.
IRAS ID
209334
Contact name
Christina Heaton
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
NorthWest Ambulance Service
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 8 months, 14 days
Research summary
Experiences of falls in domestic settings and use of ambulance services: a study of patients who do not require admission to A&E.\nEach year, 35% of people over age 65 experience falls and approximately 45% of those are aged over 85 and live in the community. As a result, between 10-25% will have a serious injury (NICE,2013). This can have a detrimental effect on the pressure on acute services (Banerjee, & Conroy, 2012), which impacts on the ambulance services target of response to urgent cases within 8 minutes (DoH, 2011). Local unpublished data from the ambulance service found that of the call outs, 24-32% of the patients were non-conveyed, of this only 32-52% of these patients were referred to the local Falls Prevention Service for a specialist multifactorial assessment (NICE 2013). \nThe literature review supported the need for falls pathways to be in place, but did not uncover the reasons for low referral rates of non-conveyed patients to falls prevention services. The reviewed supports a qualitative approach as previously studies in this topic area have been mixed method and quantitative studies. This study aims to: a) gain an in-depth understanding of the patient journey from patients, carers, and ambulance crews’ perspectives, b) generate a clear understanding of the ambulance service sub-cultures which could inform the need for improvement.\nBy observing ambulance crew and patients, I will be able to develop a comprehensive picture of the patients’ journey, therefore enhancing the findings of the interviews or focus groups, from which I will recruit participants who will become key informants in the study. The target sample will be people over 50 years of age who have fallen and have been seen by the ambulance service, but have not been referred into the falls prevention service. I will also recruit ambulance crew. \n
REC name
North West - Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/NW/0612
Date of REC Opinion
1 Sep 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion