ArticleScandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine2019
Repeated ambulance use is associated with chronic diseases - a population-based historic cohort study of patients' symptoms and diagnoses.
Article in Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed.
- Effectiveness of Multidisciplinary "Case Management" Approaches to the Management of Patients Who Make High Use of the Emergency Ambulance Service: A Quasi-experimental Evaluation Using Linked Routine Records.Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians open · 2026Article
- Reframing Emergency Medical Service in the context of chronic non-communicable disease and palliative care.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2026Article
- Frequent users of the ambulance service in a Swedish region: a retrospective cohort study.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Demographic and clinical characteristics of frequent users of emergency medical services in Türkiye.Turkish journal of medical sciences · 2026Article
- Frequent callers vs. frequent users - a scoping review of frequent contacts to the emergency medical services.International journal of emergency medicine · 2025Review
- Exploring care pathways of patients conveyed by emergency medical services (EMS) through electronic health records.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2025Article
- An analysis of ambulance re-contacts after non-conveyance: a retrospective cohort study in the Netherlands.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2025Article
- "I surely don't call for fun": experiences of being a "frequent caller" to the Danish emergency helpline.BMC public health · 2025Article
- The impact of end-of-life disability level on middle-aged and older adults' utilization of medical services.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Racing against time: Emergency ambulance dispatches and response times, a register-based study in Region Zealand, Denmark, 2013-2022.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2024Article
- Frequent contacts to Emergency Medical Services (EMS): more than frequent callers.BMC emergency medicine · 2024Article
- Prior emergency medical services utilization is a risk factor for in-hospital death among patients with substance misuse: a retrospective cohort study.BMC emergency medicine · 2024Article
- Ambulance quality and outcome measures for general non-conveyed populations (AQUA): A scoping review.PloS one · 2024Article
- Defining a threshold above which an adult can be considered to frequently use ambulance services: a retrospective cross-sectional study of emergency calls to an ambulance service in England.British paramedic journal · 2023Article
- Prehospital emergency care patient satisfaction scale [PECPSS] for care provided by emergency medical teams: Scale development and validation.AIMS public health · 2023Article
- A survey of the current nurse practitioner and physician assistant workforce in Dutch ambulance care.International journal of nursing studies advances · 2022Article
- How Patients Who Are Transported by Ambulance Experience Dyspnea and the Use of a Dyspnea Scale: A Qualitative Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Using machine learning to predict subsequent events after EMS non-conveyance decisions.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2022Article
- The updated national research agenda 2021-2026 for prehospital emergency medical services in the Netherlands: a Delphi study.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2021Article
- Perceptions of ambulance nurses on their knowledge and competence when assessing psychiatric mental illness.Nursing open · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThere is a growing demand for emergency medical services (EMS) and patients are repeatedly transported by ambulance services. For many patients, especially those with chronic disease, there may be better ways of delivering care. We examined the symptom at time of emergency call and the hospital diagnosis for those ambulance users who repeatedly received an ambulance.
methodsPopulation-based historic cohort study of patients receiving an ambulance after an emergency call between 2011 and 2014: one-time users (i.e. one ambulance run in any 12 month period) were compared to two-time users (two runs in any 12 month period) and frequent users (>two runs). The presenting symptom according to the Danish Index for Emergency Care from the EMS calls and the hospital ICD-10 discharge diagnoses were obtained from patient records.
resultsWe included 52 533 patients (65 932 emergency ambulance runs). Repeated users constituted 16% of the patients (two-time users 11% and frequent users 5%) and one third of all ambulance runs. The symptoms showing the largest increase in frequency with increasing ambulance use were breathing difficulty (N = 3 905-15% were frequent users); seizure (N = 2 437-10% were frequent users), chest pain (N = 7 616-17% were frequent users), and alcohol intoxication (N = 1 998-5% were frequent users). The hospital diagnoses with a corresponding increase were respiratory diseases (N = 4 381) - 13% were frequent users), mental disorders (predominately abuse of alcohol) (N = 3 087-10% were frequent users) and neurological diseases (predominately epilepsy) (N = 2 207-6% were frequent users). 5% of one-time users, 12% of two-time users and 16% of frequent users had a Charlson Comorbidity Index > = 3.
conclusionRepeated use of ambulance services was common and associated with chronic health problems such as chronic respiratory diseases, epilepsy, mental disorders with alcohol abuse and comorbidity. Alternative methods of caring for many of these patients should be considered.
trial registrationNone.
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