The “unclear problem” category: an analysis of its patient and dispatch characteristics and its trend over time
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The “unclear problem” category : an analysis of its patient and dispatch characteristics and its trend over time. / Otten, Sterre; Rehbock, Cassandra; Krafft, Thomas; Haugaard, Martin Vang; Pilot, Eva; Blomberg, Stig Nikolaj; Christensen, Helle Collatz.
I: BMC Emergency Medicine, Bind 22, 41, 2022.Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The “unclear problem” category
T2 - an analysis of its patient and dispatch characteristics and its trend over time
AU - Otten, Sterre
AU - Rehbock, Cassandra
AU - Krafft, Thomas
AU - Haugaard, Martin Vang
AU - Pilot, Eva
AU - Blomberg, Stig Nikolaj
AU - Christensen, Helle Collatz
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Background: An effective emergency medical dispatch process is vital to provide appropriate prehospital care to patients. It increases patient safety and ensures the sustainable use of medical resources. Although Copenhagen has a sophisticated emergency medical services (EMS) system with a significant focus on public welfare, more than 10% of emergency cases are still being categorized as an "unclear problem category" (UPC) and are thus not categorized as "symptom-specific". Therefore, the objective of this research is to gain a better understanding of the patient and dispatch characteristics of emergency cases categorized as "unclear". Methods: This register-based study based on medical emergency cases data describes patient and dispatch characteristics of emergency cases categorized as “unclear” through the use of numbers and proportions. Moreover, these cases were compared to non UPC cases. Use of UPC was stratified by month to determine the impact of alerting medical dispatchers to reduce its use. Results: From 296,398 included cases UPC accounted for 11.4% of the cases. The median age of those triaged with the UPC was 66 years vs 58 years for individuals triaged with other symptom-specific categories. Moreover, after having been triaged with the UPC, 9,661 (34.7%) of the dispatched EMS vehicles ended up being cancelled. Sensitizing medical dispatchers about the use of the UPC likely contributed to the decreased use of the UPC over time. Conclusion: The UPC has different dispatch characteristics than the symptom-specific categories, with potential negative effects on the medical dispatch process. Moreover, the median age of individuals triaged with the UPC is higher than those triaged with symptom-specific categories. Nonetheless, the use of the UPC decreased throughout the study period after the medical dispatchers were alerted about the implications of its use.
AB - Background: An effective emergency medical dispatch process is vital to provide appropriate prehospital care to patients. It increases patient safety and ensures the sustainable use of medical resources. Although Copenhagen has a sophisticated emergency medical services (EMS) system with a significant focus on public welfare, more than 10% of emergency cases are still being categorized as an "unclear problem category" (UPC) and are thus not categorized as "symptom-specific". Therefore, the objective of this research is to gain a better understanding of the patient and dispatch characteristics of emergency cases categorized as "unclear". Methods: This register-based study based on medical emergency cases data describes patient and dispatch characteristics of emergency cases categorized as “unclear” through the use of numbers and proportions. Moreover, these cases were compared to non UPC cases. Use of UPC was stratified by month to determine the impact of alerting medical dispatchers to reduce its use. Results: From 296,398 included cases UPC accounted for 11.4% of the cases. The median age of those triaged with the UPC was 66 years vs 58 years for individuals triaged with other symptom-specific categories. Moreover, after having been triaged with the UPC, 9,661 (34.7%) of the dispatched EMS vehicles ended up being cancelled. Sensitizing medical dispatchers about the use of the UPC likely contributed to the decreased use of the UPC over time. Conclusion: The UPC has different dispatch characteristics than the symptom-specific categories, with potential negative effects on the medical dispatch process. Moreover, the median age of individuals triaged with the UPC is higher than those triaged with symptom-specific categories. Nonetheless, the use of the UPC decreased throughout the study period after the medical dispatchers were alerted about the implications of its use.
KW - Category
KW - Copenhagen
KW - Dispatch centers
KW - Emergency medical services
KW - Unclear problem
U2 - 10.1186/s12873-022-00597-6
DO - 10.1186/s12873-022-00597-6
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 35279086
AN - SCOPUS:85126245302
VL - 22
JO - BMC Emergency Medicine
JF - BMC Emergency Medicine
SN - 1471-227X
M1 - 41
ER -
ID: 318523842