Community falls prevention for people who call an emergency ambulance after a fall: an economic evaluation alongside a randomised controlled trial.

Objective: we estimated the cost-effectiveness of a community falls prevention service compared with usual care from a National Health Service and personal social services perspective over the 12 month trial period.

Design: a cost-effectiveness and cost utility analysis alongside a randomised controlled trial

Setting: community.

Participants: people over 60 years of age living at home or in residential care who had fallen and called an emergency ambulance but were not taken to hospital.

Community falls prevention for people who call an emergency ambulance after a fall: randomised controlled trial.

Objective: To evaluate whether a service to prevent falls in the community would help reduce the rate of falls in older people who call an emergency ambulance when they fall but are not taken to hospital.

Design: Randomised controlled trial.

Setting: Community covered by four primary care trusts, England.

Intermediate care for older people.

Up to 40 per cent of older people do not go to hospital after calling an emergency ambulance and until recently were not referred on to any other community services. This article describes how a multidisciplinary working group developed and evaluated a protocol to enable older people to be referred to intermediate care services after calling an emergency ambulance. A total of 54 patients were monitored after referral to intermediate care to assess adherence to the protocol and outcomes.