The Felgains Falls Solution | Reducing Ambulance Callouts and Improving Outcomes
Here at Felgains, we understand that falls are one of the biggest challenges faced by the health and care system in this country. So, on this page, we explain this problem and set out how we can help organisations reduce ambulance callouts and improve outcomes
The Problem
In the UK, a third of people over 65 and half of people over 80 fall at least once a year. This means that every year in the UK, at least 5 million people will experience at least one fall.
People who have fallen, but not sustained any injuries, are usually triaged as ‘Category 4’, so they will typically wait hours for help. Ambulance callout times are currently at record high levels, further increasing the length of time a fallen person will be waiting on the floor. More than one hour on the floor is called a ‘long lie’, and this is associated with serious complications, such that even if there was no initial injury from the fall, the long lie will cause harm.
Falls are the number one reason older people are taken to the emergency department at hospital. There are around 255,000 falls-related emergency hospital admissions in England among patients aged 65 and over each year.
And the cost to the NHS? Falls are estimated to cost the NHS more than £2.3 billion per year…
The Solution
NHS organisations, ICSs, Ambulance Trusts, UCR and Falls Response teams across the country are implementing the Raizer Lifting Chair to reduce ambulance callouts and hospital admissions, improve the patient and staff experience, and reduce system cost and pressure.
Reduce Ambulance Callouts and Hospital AdmissionsBy using non-ambulance resource such as CFRs or UCR Teams to respond to non-injury and minor injury falls, Ambulances can get to category 1 and 2 callouts sooner. And by getting to fallers quicker and treating them at their home or care home, the likelihood of a hospital admission is greatly reduced, easing current hospital capacity challenges. |
Improve the patient and staff experienceGetting the fallen person up from the floor in a quick and dignified manner makes it a more comfortable and less stressful experience for the faller, and makes it an easier task for the staff to carry out confidently and competently. By doing this, the risk of damage is minimised and the faller has the best chance of maintaining a good quality of life. |
Reduce System Cost and PressureTreating fallen persons quickly and at their home or in their care home greatly reduces the risk of hospital admission and the resulting costs and deconditioning. By preventing the costs of hospital admissions and emergency callouts, organisations can reduce the pressure on stretched services and save significant amounts. |
HelpFall – The new standard in post falls decision-making
HelpFall is a digital post-falls decision-making tool that supports care staff to safely assess a person over 65 who has fallen, and helps them decide whether to lift or assist them from the floor using safe manual handling techniques and equipment.
Developed in association with South Western Ambulance Service (SWAST), HelpFall asks a few short questions so care staff can check if the person has new injuries or symptoms. HelpFall uses traffic lights to categorise the fall and suggest what actions care staff should take based on their answers.
| Find out more |
Winter Pressures
Falls response is especially relevant during the winter months, when the volume of ambulance callouts increases significantly – a large part of what is known as ‘winter pressures’. The key focus during these periods is preventing hospital admissions wherever possible.
So by having a solution in place that allows non-ambulance resources (whether that be Care Homes, UCR or other services) to respond to non-injury and minor injury fallers and get them off the floor quickly and safely, patient harm from long lies can be avoided and ambulance callouts to falls reduced.
As a result, the pressure on ambulance and acute services is reduced, and ambulance response times to category 2 callouts can be improved.
The Raizer Lifting Chair
The Raizer is a motorised lifting chair that assembles around a fallen person and lifts them up to a seated or perching position. It is easy to assemble and use for the caregiver, and it is safe, smooth and very reassuring for the fallen person.
- Ease of use means that staff will actually use it – and want to use it!
- minimal moving & handling makes it safe for the caregiver and easy to do single-handedly
- Smooth and quiet action reassures the fallen person, minimising the emotional stress of a fall and being lifted up again
| Find out more |
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How Mid and South Essex Health Care Partnership have Reduced Ambulance Callouts to Care Homes by 69%
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How Dorset UCRT are using Raizer Chairs to keep 80% of Fallers in Their Own Homes
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How Southern Health are using Raizer Chairs to improve falls prevention outcomes
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How East of England Ambulance Service CFRs are using Raizer Chairs to put More Ambulance Hours back into the System
Webinar Recording | Going further for winter: How to implement community-based falls response
Following the release of NHS England guidance around winter resilience and implementing community base falls response, Felgains held a webinar to examine the key parts of the guidance and share best practise from ICBs we work with who are already implementing falls response.
| Watch the recording and view the slides |
Felgains as your trusted partner
One Complete Solution
Felgains can help you through the whole process, from identifying the need all the way to full rollout and follow up
Training
We book and deliver face to face training to every team leader or manager, along with a bespoke training video
Data Monitoring
Our team has the ability to assist with the data monitoring and tracking of the project
Our ‘Falls Vision’
Here at Felgains, our Falls Vision is that there should be zero unnecessary ambulance callouts to non-injury or minor injury falls in care settings and the community.
To this end, we are working with organisations across health and social care to implement falls response and prevention solutions that enable better care.
ICB Falls Projects: your 8 most common questions answered
Here at Felgains, we work with a lot of ICBs on falls projects, and as you can imagine, we get lots of different questions about how to implement the project and what factors to consider.
Using our knowledge and experience, in this video we answer the 8 most common questions we get about ICB falls projects.
Get the conversation started now
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