ArticleScandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine2025
An analysis of ambulance re-contacts after non-conveyance: a retrospective cohort study in the Netherlands.
Article in Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- 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
- The impact of community paramedicine service on prehospital time intervals in rural Norway: a quasi-experimental study.BMC 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
- Patient flow and safety after implementing a community paramedicine service: a quasi-experimental study.BMJ open · 2025Article
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8 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundNon-conveyance is an increasing part of ambulance care and has to be safe. One of the indicators to measure safety is an ambulance re-contact within 72 h. However, solely measuring the percentage of re-contacts has limited validity as it lacks insight in actual reasons of an ambulance re-contact. Therefore, the aim of our study was to analyze the incidence, reasons and outcomes of ambulance re-contacts within 72 h after non-conveyance.
methodsWe conducted a one year (2022) retrospective study in one EMS region in the Netherlands. Medical records of all non-conveyance runs with a re-contact were analyzed using a framework to categorize re-contact reasons in illness-related, patient-related, professional-related, and unrelated. Re-contact outcomes were measured in terms of (non-)conveyance and mortality.
results585/13.879 (4.2%) non-conveyance runs had a re-contact within 72 h. 547/585 (93.5%) re-contacts could be categorized with the framework. Re-contacts were related to the illness (n = 267, 48.8%), the patient (n = 130, 23.8%), the professional (n = 106, 19.4%) and unrelated (n = 44, 8.0%). Four subreasons accounted for 68.5% of reasons for re-contacts: progression of disease (19.4%), recurrent disease process/exacerbation (18.6%), reassessment and ambulance request by another medical professional (15.9%), and psychiatric disorder and/or substance abuse (14.6%). 403/547 (73.7%) patients with a re-contact were conveyed to the hospital. Mortality rate for patients with a re-contact was 0.5%.
conclusionsRe-contact incidence after non-conveyance is relatively low, with a very small part of re-contacts related to ambulance care professionals making errors in diagnosis or treatment. Combined with low re-contact mortality, this indicates safe non-conveyance decisions. Re-contacts as quality indicator cover a variety of reasons, with almost half of the re-contacts being related to illness. Four subcategories accounted for the majority of all reasons for re-contacts: progression of disease, recurrent disease process/exacerbation, reassessment and ambulance request by another medical professional, and psychiatric disorder and/or substance abuse. Three-quarters of the patients were conveyed, although more re-contacts due to patient related reasons ended in non-conveyance again.
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