ArticlePloS one2021
Time consumption for non-conveyed patients within emergency medical services (EMS): A one-year prospective descriptive and comparative study in a region of Sweden.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 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
- Patient safety in non-conveyance within prehospital emergency medical services: a register-based study.Internal and emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Geographic distribution of EMS missions and patient conditions in suburban and rural Sweden: a retrospective observational study.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2026Observational
- Rethinking non-urgent EMS conveyance to ED during night-time - a pilot study in Southwest Finland.BMC emergency medicine · 2023Article
- The general attributes and competence for nurses in a single responder unit: A modified Delphi study.BMC emergency medicine · 2023Article
- 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
- Suboptimal prehospital decision- making for referral to alternative levels of care - frequency, measurement, acceptance rate and room for improvement.BMC emergency medicine · 2022Review
- Can a Low-Budget Questionnaire Support Improved Health Service Accessibility and Sustainability: Results from an Exploratory Study.Inquiry : a journal of medical care organization, provision and financingArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionOver time, ambulance assignments have increased in number both nationally and internationally, and a substantial proportion of patients encountered by emergency medical services are assessed as not being in need of services. Non-conveying patients has become a way for emergency medical services clinicians to meet this increasing workload. It has been shown that ambulances can be made available sooner if patients are non-conveyed, but there is no previous research describing the factors that influence the non-conveyance time. STUDY
objectiveTo describe ambulance time consumption and the factors that influence time consumption when patients are non-conveyed.
methodsA prospective observational review of 2615 non-conveyed patients' ambulance and hospital medical records was conducted using a consecutive sample. Data were analysed with the Kruskal-Wallis test, Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman's rank correlation (rho) for linear correlations.
resultsThe mean NC time for all ambulance assignments during the study period was 26 minutes, with a median of 25 minutes. The shortest NC time was 4 minutes, and the longest NC time was 73 minutes. NC times were significantly faster during the day than at night.
conclusionsThis study provides new knowledge about time consumption when patients are non-conveyed. Although there are time differences when patients are non-conveyed, the differences observed in this study are small and not of clinical value. Ambulances will most often become available sooner if patients are non-conveyed. Although patients might be eligible for non-conveyance, policy-makers might have to decide when it is appropriate to non-convey patients from time, resource, patient safety and patient-centred care perspectives.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.