Observational studyScandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine2015
Why and when citizens call for emergency help: an observational study of 211,193 medical emergency calls.
Observational study in Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 64 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
64 citing papers in PubMed.
- Video-assisted versus telephone-only pediatric emergency calls: a predefined substudy of the cluster randomized CAM-VISION trial.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2026Trial
- Video Streaming or Telephone Communication During Emergency Medical Services Dispatch Calls: A Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2025Trial
- A randomized controlled trial evaluating the effects of nurse-led triage of 911 calls.Nature human behaviour · 2024Trial
- Do callers to out-of-hours care misuse an option to jump the phone queue?Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2019Trial
- Giving callers the option to bypass the telephone waiting line in out-of-hours services: a comparative intervention study.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2019Trial
- Stress and salivary cortisol in emergency medical dispatchers: A randomized shifts control trial.PloS one · 2017Trial
- Seasonal and Time-of-Day Variations in Ambulance-Transported Emergency Department Diagnoses: A One-Year Observational Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Age and gender patterns in emergency alarms and missions: a cross-sectional observational study.BMC emergency medicine · 2026Observational
- Self-reported adherence of ambulance nurses to acute chest pain guidelines in Southern Sweden: a cross-sectional study.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Dispatcher Performance and Prehospital Outcomes in Telephone-Assisted Airway Management following Foreign Body Obstruction: A Cross-Sectional Study.Archives of academic emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Assessment of the Technical Interpretability of Prehospital ECGs Performed by Medical and Nonmedical Teams in a French Emergency Medical System: A Descriptive Pilot Study.Emergency medicine international · 2026Article
- Leadership Perspectives on Criteria-Based Dispatch and Prehospital Triage in Thailand's Emergency Medical Services: A 10-Year National Trend Analysis and Policy Implications.Journal of healthcare leadership · 2026Article
- Prior Outpatient Care Use in Emergency Department Patients with Low- and High-acuity Conditions in Germany.The western journal of emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Patterns of emergency dispatch calls and their changes during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.BMC emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Variations in Prehospital Analgesic Use Based on Pain Etiology.Biomedicines · 2025Article
- Strengthening the WHO Emergency Care Systems Framework: insights from an integrated, patient-centered approach in the Copenhagen Emergency Medical Services system-a qualitative system analysis.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Health care pathways described by care-seekers following a call to the emergency medical communication center-A Swedish perspective.PloS one · 2025Article
- Emergency call utilization over a 10-years period: an observational study in Region Zealand, Denmark, 2013-2022.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2024Observational
- Prehospital management and outcomes of patients calling with chest pain as the main complaint.International journal of emergency medicine · 2024Article
- Ongoing Opioid Treatment and Symptoms of Myocardial Infarction in Calls to the Emergency Medical Services.JACC. Advances · 2024Article
4 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundA 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).
methodsDescriptive analysis was performed for causes for access and emergency priority levels. A Poisson regression model was used to calculate adjusted ratio estimates for the association between seasons, weekdays, and time of day overall and stratified by emergency priority levels.
resultsWe analyzed 211,193 emergency calls for temporal variation. Of those, 167,635 calls were eligible for analysis of causes and emergency priority level. "Unclear problem" was the most frequent category (19%). The five most common causes with known origin were categorized as "Wounds, fractures, minor injuries" (13%), "Chest pain/heart disease" (11%), "Accidents" (9%), "Intoxication, poisoning, drug overdose" (8%), and "Breathing difficulties" (7%). The highest emergency priority levels (Emergency priority level A and B) were assigned in 81% of calls. In the analysis of temporal variation, the total number of calls peaked at wintertime (26%), Saturdays (16%), and during daytime (39%).
conclusionThe 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.
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