How do people with dementia use the ambulance service? A retrospective study in England: the HOMEWARD project.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

An increasing number of older people are calling ambulances and presenting to accident and emergency departments. The presence of comorbidities and dementia can make managing these patients more challenging and hospital admission more likely, resulting in poorer outcomes for patients. However, we do not know how many of these patients are conveyed to hospital by ambulance. This study aims to determine: how often ambulances are called to older people; how often comorbidities including dementia are recorded; the reason for the call; provisional diagnosis; the amount of time ambulance clinicians spend on scene; the frequency with which these patients are transported to hospital.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study of ambulance patient care reco

SUBMITTER: Voss S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6074617 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature