Scand J Trauma Resus
-
Scand J Trauma Resus · Nov 2015
Comparative StudyWhy and when citizens call for emergency help: an observational study of 211,193 medical emergency calls.
A medical emergency call is citizens' access to pre-hospital emergency care and ambulance services. Emergency medical dispatchers are gatekeepers to provision of pre-hospital resources and possibly hospital admissions. We explored causes for access, emergency priority levels, and temporal variation within seasons, weekdays, and time of day for emergency calls to the emergency medical dispatch center in Copenhagen in a two-year study period (December 1(st), 2011 to November 30(th), 2013). ⋯ The pattern of citizens' contact causes fell into four overall categories: unclear problems, medical problems, intoxication and accidents. The majority of calls were urgent. The magnitude of unclear problems represents a modifiable factor and highlights the potential for further improvement of supportive dispatch priority tools or educational interventions at dispatch centers. Temporal variation was identified within seasons, weekdays and time of day and reflects both system load and disease occurrence. Data on contact patterns could be utilized in a public health perspective, benchmarking of EMS systems, and ultimately development of best practice in the area of emergency medicine.
-
Scand J Trauma Resus · Nov 2015
Post resuscitation care - some words of caution and a call for action.
This fall the European Resuscitation Council (ERC) and the European Cardiology Society (ESC) publish updated post resuscitation care guidelines. For these guidelines to have an impact they must be implemented into daily clinical practice. ⋯ A recent Nordic (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden) survey suggests worrisome variations in post resuscitation care provided and should urge us all to act in the coming years. One important step will be to build up resuscitation systems with integrated cardiac arrest centres in all the 5 Nordic countries and benchmark process of care, financial implications and survival.