Observational studyThe Medical journal of Australia2022
The influence of ambulance offload time on 30-day risks of death and re-presentation for patients with chest pain.
Observational study in The Medical journal of Australia, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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
9 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Remoteness and emergency care pathways for ambulance-attended atrial fibrillation: a population-based linked cohort study.International journal of cardiology. Heart & vasculature · 2026Article
- When ambulances wait at the emergency department: hospital factors and offload times in California.Health affairs scholar · 2026Article
- The Association Between Access Block And Ambulance Ramping, And The Impact of COVID-19: A Retrospective Observational Cohort Study of 25 Queensland Hospitals.The Medical journal of Australia · 2026Observational
- Article
- Waiting time ambulances in the Emergency Department; a Dutch single center study (WAITED study).International journal of emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Racial and Socioeconomic Disparities in California Ambulance Patient Offload Times.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Ambulance offload performance, patient characteristics and disposition for patients offloaded to different areas of the emergency department.Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA · 2025Observational
- Patterns in California Ambulance Patient Offload Times by Local Emergency Medical Services Agency.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
12 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo assess whether ambulance offload time influences the risks of death or ambulance re-attendance within 30 days of initial emergency department (ED) presentations by adults with non-traumatic chest pain. DESIGN,
settingPopulation-based observational cohort study of consecutive presentations by adults with non-traumatic chest pain transported by ambulance to Victorian EDs, 1 January 2015 - 30 June 2019.
participantsAdults (18 years or older) with non-traumatic chest pain, excluding patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction (pre-hospital electrocardiography) and those who were transferred between hospitals or not transported to hospital (eg, cardiac arrest or death prior to transport).
main outcome measuresPrimary outcome: 30-day all-cause mortality (Victorian Death Index data). SECONDARY OUTCOME: Transport by ambulance with chest pain to ED within 30 days of initial ED presentation.
resultsWe included 213 544 people with chest pain transported by ambulance to EDs (mean age, 62 [SD, 18] years; 109 027 women [51%]). The median offload time increased from 21 (IQR, 15-30) minutes in 2015 to 24 (IQR, 17-37) minutes during the first half of 2019. Three offload time tertiles were defined to include approximately equal patient numbers: tertile 1 (0-17 minutes), tertile 2 (18-28 minutes), and tertile 3 (more than 28 minutes). In multivariable models, 30-day risk of death was greater for patients in tertile 3 than those in tertile 1 (adjusted rates, 1.57% v 1.29%; adjusted risk difference, 0.28 [95% CI, 0.16-0.42] percentage points), as was that of a second ambulance attendance with chest pain (adjusted rates, 9.03% v 8.15%; adjusted risk difference, 0.87 [95% CI, 0.57-1.18] percentage points).
conclusionsLonger ambulance offload times are associated with greater 30-day risks of death and ambulance re-attendance for people presenting to EDs with chest pain. Improving the speed of ambulance-to-ED transfers is urgently required.
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.