When an elderly person falls in an assisted living home, an ambulance is often called whether it's an emergency situation or not.

Wake County Emergency Medical Services partnered with doctors for a recent study that looked at if this unnecessary transport could be avoided.

Deputy Medical Director for the Wake County EMS System, Dr. Jefferson Williams and Wake County EMS Public Information Officer, Jeffrey Hammerstein sit down with Spectrum News to explain the findings.

Key figures: 

  • Study period: Nov. 2012-May 2016. 
  • 953 patients agreed to participate in the study (meaning if they fell, they would allow this protocol to be used to evaluate whether they would be transported to the hospital for a fall). 
  • During the study, 359 patients had a total of 840 ground level falls. 
  • Of the 840 falls, the protocol recommended *no* hospital transport for 553 of the falls. 

To see the Annals of Internal Medicine's publication of the study, click here.