Setting
SECONDARY
The study was conducted in four public hospital EDs in two Local Health Districts (LHDs) and 16 RACFS, in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The EDs were selected for their metropolitan and rural locations; LHD A has two metropolitan and one rural ED and LHD B has one rural ED. The Australian Department of Health and Aged Care uses the Modified Monash Model (MMM) [Data collection periods in PACE-IT stepped wedge design (Metro = metropolitan)An episode of care included all instances where an ED medical record was created for an RACF resident when:the resident was transferred to the ED, with or without an ED ACE call/VTC, oran ED ACE/VTC was attended, and the resident was not transferred to the ED.NB: Individual residents may have had more than one episode of care within the study period.For descriptive statistics, primary and secondary outcomes, as well as the post-hoc analysis, only episodes of care which occurred within ED ACE hours (Monday to Friday, 8am to 4 pm) were included. An extra analysis was conducted for comparison, including all episodes of care (non-ED ACE and ED ACE combined).