ArticleBMC emergency medicine2020
Characteristics of non-conveyed patients in emergency medical services (EMS): a one-year prospective descriptive and comparative study in a region of Sweden.
Article in BMC emergency medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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.
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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
28 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Scoping review on alternative care options for patients calling the ambulance.BMC emergency medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Children and young people assessed by ambulance clinicians in a sparsely populated circumpolar region: non-conveyance and subsequent healthcare contacts in Northern Sweden.International journal of circumpolar health · 2026Article
- "I just needed help": a qualitative study of patients' experiences with a single responder ambulance.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Risk assessment reasoning and decision-making by ambulance professionals in patients with a transient loss of consciousness: a qualitative study.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Patient safety and predictors for subsequent healthcare contact after self-care referral from Swedish ambulance services: a retrospective cohort study.BMC emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Implementation of Telemedicine for Patients Referred to Emergency Medical Services.Epidemiologia (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Is non-conveyance solo-ambulances a useful mean to meet the increasing demand for emergency medical services in Denmark?BMC health services research · 2025Article
- The development of a decision support tool in the prehospital setting for acute chest pain - a study protocol for an observational study (BRIAN2).Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Nurses' use of an advisory decision support system in ambulance services: A qualitative study.Journal of advanced nursing · 2025Article
- Adaption of a trigger tool to identify harmful incidents, no harm incidents, and near misses in prehospital emergency care of children.BMC emergency medicine · 2024Article
- Treat and release: an observational study of non-conveyed high-acuity dispatches in a Danish emergency medical system.Internal and emergency medicine · 2024Observational
- Development of a trigger tool to identify harmful incidents, no harm incidents, and near misses in prehospital emergency care.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2024Article
- Factors influencing non-conveyance care encounters in the ambulance service, registered nurses experiences - a qualitative study.BMC nursing · 2024Article
- The non-conveyance of trauma patients in Swedish emergency medical services: a retrospective observational study of the trauma population not transported to an emergency department.BMC emergency medicine · 2024Observational
- Ambulance quality and outcome measures for general non-conveyed populations (AQUA): A scoping review.PloS one · 2024Article
- Association between using a prehospital assessment unit and hospital admission and mortality: a matched cohort study.BMJ open · 2023Article
- Risk stratification tools for patients with syncope in emergency medical services and emergency departments: a scoping review.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2023Article
- Article
- Satisfaction among non-conveyed patients and significant others when discharged at the scene by the ambulance service: an exploratory cross-sectional survey.BMC emergency medicine · 2022Article
- Prehospital assessment of patients with abdominal pain triaged to self-care at home: an observation study.BMC emergency medicine · 2022Observational
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThere has been an increasing demand for emergency medical services (EMS), and a growing number of patients are not conveyed; i.e., they are referred to levels of care other than ambulance conveyance to the emergency department. Patient safety issues have been raised regarding the ability of EMS to decide not to convey patients. To improve non-conveyance guidelines, information is needed about patients who are not conveyed by EMS. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to describe and compare the proportion and characteristics of non-conveyed EMS patients, together with assignment data.
methodsA descriptive and comparative consecutive cohort design was undertaken. The decision of whether to convey patients was made by EMS according to a region-specific non-conveyance guideline. Non-conveyed patients' medical record data were prospectively gathered from February 2016 to January 2017. Analyses was conducted using the chi-squared test, two-sample t test, proportion test and Mann-Whitneys U-test.
resultsOut of the 23,250 patients served during the study period, 2691 (12%) were not conveyed. For non-conveyed adults, the most commonly used Emergency Signs and Symptoms (ESS) codes were unspecific symptoms/malaise, abdomen/flank/groin pain, and breathing difficulties. For non-conveyed children, the most common ESS codes were breathing difficulties and fever of unclear origin. Most of the non-conveyed patients had normal vital signs. Half of all patients with a designated non-conveyance level of care were referred to self-care. There were statistically significant differences between men and women.
conclusionsFewer patients were non-conveyed in the studied region compared to national and international non-conveyance rates. The differences seen between men and women were not of clinical significance. Follow-up studies are needed to understand what effect patient outcome so that guidelines might improve.
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