Clinical quality registries monitor and report on the appropriateness and effectiveness of health care.
Ambulance Victoria provides data to the Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Related Ambulance Attendances registry, the Victorian State Trauma Registry and the Victorian Cardiac Outcomes Registry. We also maintain the Victorian Ambulance Cardiac Arrest Registry, and are a key contributor to the Australian Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium (Aus-ROC) Epistry.
The Victorian Ambulance Cardiac Arrest Registry (VACAR) is a quality assurance initiative. It captures data on all out-of-hospital cardiac arrests attended by emergency medical services in Victoria. The registry commenced in October 1999 and is funded by the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services.
VACAR data is used to monitor response intervals, treatment protocols and cardiac arrest patient outcomes. Ambulance Victoria clinical and operational data is supplemented with outcome data from Victorian hospitals and the Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. Also, in 2010, the VACAR commenced interviews with cardiac arrest survivors 12 months after cardiac arrest to follow up on their health-related quality of life.
The VACAR is one of the largest pre-hospital cardiac arrest registries in the world and supports a significant research program into the care of cardiac arrest patients. View a list of our research publications.
Undertaking clinical trials in the pre-hospital environment allows us to expand the evidence base surrounding pre-hospital emergency care.
Our MICA paramedics are currently enrolling patients in the PATCH Study and the EXACT Study, and are also currently undertaking a feasibility study of the ICED Study. Recently, we also conducted enrolment into the POLAR Study.
Ambulance Victoria also contributes to numerous other research projects. For example, we are currently working with beyondblue on its National Mental Health and Wellbeing Study of Police and Emergency Services project. For more information about research at Ambulance Victoria, please email researchevaluation@ambulance.vic.gov.au.