EVALUATION OF THE 112 EMERGENCY SERVICE USE BY OLDER PEOPLE

Abstract

Introduction: In this descriptive study aimed to determine the cases, 65 years of age and over, treated and transported by 112 service in year 2006 were surveyed from command center record of Sivas center. Materials and Method. Data were obtained from the records of Emergency Health Care Services Department. The collected data were classified by sex, age, admission hour, season, diagnosis. SPSS 14.0 program was used for data analysis. Results: A total of 6782 cases admitted to 112 emergency services in Sivas, in 2006. The number of patients aged 65 years and over were 1507 and accounted 22.2% of all attendances. It is notable that most of the applications take place in January, in Winter and significantly between 10:00 and 12:00 hours (p<0.001). The most frequent causes were cardiovascular (27.2%), neurological (27.2%) and respiratory problems (27.2%) and 85.6% of the cases, the fate was recorded as a transport to hospital. Conclusion: Our results showed that the 112 emergency health care services were frequently used by older people in Sivas center. For this reason, impact of the increasingly ageing population should be considered in the planning of 112 emergency health care services.