Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Sep 10:14:380.
doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-14-380.

Trends of pre-hospital emergency medical services activity over 10 years: a population-based registry analysis

Valérie Pittet  1 , Bernard Burnand, Bertrand Yersin, Pierre-Nicolas Carron
Affiliations

Trends of pre-hospital emergency medical services activity over 10 years: a population-based registry analysis

Valérie Pittet et al. BMC Health Serv Res. .

Abstract

Background: The number of requests to pre-hospital emergency medical services (PEMS) has increased in Europe over the last 20 years, but epidemiology of PEMS interventions has little be investigated. The aim of this analysis was to describe time trends of PEMS activity in a region of western Switzerland.

Methods: Use of data routinely and prospectively collected for PEMS intervention in the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland, from 2001 to 2010. This Swiss Canton comprises approximately 10% of the whole Swiss population.

Results: We observed a 40% increase in the number of requests to PEMS between 2001 and 2010. The overall rate of requests was 35/1000 inhabitants for ambulance services and 10/1000 for medical interventions (SMUR), with the highest rate among people aged ≥ 80. Most frequent reasons for the intervention were related to medical problems, predominantly unconsciousness, chest pain respiratory distress, or cardiac arrest, whereas severe trauma interventions decreased over time. Overall, 89% were alive after 48 h. The survival rate after 48 h increased regularly for cardiac arrest or myocardial infarction.

Conclusion: Routine prospective data collection of prehospital emergency interventions and monitoring of activity was feasible over time. The results we found add to the understanding of determinants of PEMS use and need to be considered to plan use of emergency health services in the near future. More comprehensive analysis of the quality of services and patient safety supported by indicators are also required, which might help to develop prehospital emergency services and new processes of care.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Evolution of the number of calls to the 144 ECC and PEMS interventions between 2001 and 2010. ECC: emergency call center; PEMS: prehospital emergency medical services; primary interventions = on-site and at-home emergencies; secondary interventions = urgent inter-hospital transfers (secondary interventions were not recorded in 2001 and 2002); SMUR: emergency physicians sent simultaneously onsite.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Pantridge JF, Geddes JS. A mobile intensive-care unit in the management of myocardial infarction. Lancet. 1967;2:271–273. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(67)90110-9. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Spaite DW, Maio R, Garrison HG, Desmond JS, Gregor MA, Stiell IG, Cayten CG, Chew JL, Jr, Mackenzie EJ, Miller DR, O'Malley PJ. Emergency Medical Services Outcomes Project (EMSOP) II: developing the foundation and conceptual models for out-of-hospital outcomes research. Ann Emerg Med. 2001;37:657–663. doi: 10.1067/mem.2001.115215. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Barrier G. Emergency calls in the Samu system. C R Acad Sci III. 2001;324:663–666. doi: 10.1016/S0764-4469(01)01334-8. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Clark MJ, FitzGerald G. Older people’s use of ambulance services: a population based analysis. J Accid Emerg Med. 1999;16:108–111. doi: 10.1136/emj.16.2.108. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kohnlein A, Kehtari R. Mobile emergency services of Neuchatel. Evaluation of two years of activity: 1996–7. Rev Med Suisse Romande. 1999;119:3–9. - PubMed
Pre-publication history
    1. The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here:http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/14/380/prepub