Study: Not all seniors who fall while in assisted living need to visit hospital

First responders and Wake County EMS are now training to evaluate patients who fall at assisted living facilities to decide whether or not they need to go to the hospital.

"Taking folks to the emergency department 100 percent of the time isn't really the right thing in all cases," said Dr. Jefferson Williams, Wake County EMS director.

In more than half of the cases, taking a person with a compromised immune system to the hospital after a fall can expose them to dangerous germs, the study said.

"Most patients you will find don't actually want to go to the hospital, but they don't have any other options or they have a facility pushing them to go," said Hunter Crowder, a paramedic.

Helen Merentino, 84, said she has been taken to the hospital when she didn't think she needed to go.

"You're in a position where you're alone and you say, ‘Okay, whatever you say I'll do.’ That's where they get you," she said.

Seniors say the new protocol is a winner.

"(They) have really said thank you in a lot of cases for us having this thoughtful, patient-centered protocol as opposed to a simply a policy that if you fall you have to go out," Jefferson said.

The irony is that EMS has an incentive to transport patients, that’s how they get paid. There’s currently a move to get Medicaid and private insurance to consider reimbursing EMS for their evaluations.