Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Review Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Preventive care in the emergency department: should emergency departments institute a falls prevention program for elder patients? A systematic review.
To perform a systematic review of the emergency medicine literature to assess the appropriateness of an intervention to identify, counsel, and refer emergency department (ED) patients >64 years old who are at high risk for falls. ⋯ Based on one randomized controlled trial demonstrating a significant reduction in the risk of further falls, the burden of suffering caused by falls, and other studies demonstrating the value of interventions to reduce the risk of falling, the authors recommend that EDs conduct research to evaluate the effectiveness of clinical interventions to identify, counsel, and refer ED patients >64 years old who are at high risk for an unintentional fall.