Patients need to be able to participate in the planned phone follow-up – therefore itinerant patients or those with no telephone will be excluded from participation in the trial. Note: At recruitment, additional phone contact numbers will be sought from the patient, this may include family members or neighbours, to minimise loss to follow-up 6. Patients Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical presenting to the ED outside of the recruitment hours (Mon-Fri 8 hours per day) A record will be kept
detailing the reason for each exclusion. Demographic details (age, gender, residential location – community or residential care, triage category) will also be collected to identify if the excluded Cytoskeletal Signaling inhibitor population is different from the sample population to a level reaching statistical significance. Data collection tools Site visit The site visit tool Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical will be designed to focus on environmental factors relating to clinical care, and structural processes (such as policies and procedures, training and staff allocation). The survey strategy will assess physical
layout, equipment, staffing levels and policies and procedures pertinent to the ED management of geriatric patients. Each site visit will Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical take two days and involve discussions with a range of staff attached to the ED. This will include: emergency staff specialists; nursing unit managers; pharmacists; allied health and other members from the multidisciplinary team; quality managers; and ED clerical
Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical staff. At the completion of the site visit, the data will Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical be reviewed and a list of incomplete questions will be forwarded to the site coordinator to enable the site to provide additional information that may not have been available at the time of the physical site visit. For each structural QI, data will be sought (if relevant) to support the also validation of the QI at the level of policy, protocol, processes implemented and audit (regular review to identify if policy and/or processes are adhered to). •Prospective data collection: Several formal tools will be utilised to collect data from patients while they are in the ED. This will include a tool which provide an overview of the health status of an older person both prior to the onset of the acute episode and during the ED visit (interRAI ED Assessment [36]and selected items from interRAI Acute Care [37,38]). Input from the expert panel will be sought prior to finalisation of included tools.