Study objectives: Emergency medical services (EMS) is an important part of the health care system. The effect of EMS on morbidity, mortality, and costs of illness is difficult to evaluate because hospital information ...
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Study objectives: Emergency medical services (EMS) is an important part of the health care system. The effect of EMS on morbidity, mortality, and costs of illness is difficult to evaluate because hospital information is not available in out-of-hospital databases. We used probabilistic linkage to create such a database from ambulance and inpatient data and demonstrate the potential for linkage to facilitate evaluation of EMS responses resulting in hospital admission. Methods: Statewide ambulance and inpatient hospital discharge records were available for 1994 through 1946. Ambulance records indicating admission to the emergency department or hospital (165,649 records) were linked to inpatient hospital records indicating emergency admission (146,292 records) by using probabilistic linkage. Out-of-hospital data (dispatch code, treatments rendered, and ages), linkage rates, and inpatient data (discharge status, charges, length of stay, and payer category) were analyzed. Results: We linked 24,299 (14.7%) ambulance events to inpatient hospital discharges. If we had used exact linkage methods, we would have only linked 14,621 record pairs, a loss of nearly 40%. linkage rates were relatively constant between years (approximately 15%) but differed by ambulance dispatch codes. Out-of-hospital dispatch codes with high linkage rates included breathing problems (22.6%), chest pain (21.5%), diabetic problems (16.9%), drowning incidents (14.9%), falls (19.2%), strokes (32.8%), and unconsciousness or fainting episodes (16.1%). Linkage to the hospital record provided access to hospital outcome data. Inpatient mortality was 6.8%. Survivors were discharged home (60.7%), transferred to other acute-care facilities (3.6%) or intermediate-care facilities (23.3%), or discharged with home health care provision (4.9%). The median length of stay was 3 days, and median charges were $6,620;total inpatient charges were $286,737,067. Conclusion: Probabilistic linkage enables ambulance and hospita
Working at a major accident site is a complex matter where knowledge from various fields must be put into practice. In addition, the different situations at emergency and disaster sites place a variety of demands on p...
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The UK Government has made improvements in cardiac care a high priority. The publication in 2000 of the National Service Framework for Coronary Heart Disease and the NHS Plan set out national standards for the managem...
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Ambulance services, as part of Accident and Emergency provision, are once again under scrutiny. This article reflects on a recent visit to a SAMU (Service d'Aide Medicale Urgente) unit in France, and considers tho...
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Ambulance services, as part of Accident and Emergency provision, are once again under scrutiny. This article reflects on a recent visit to a SAMU (Service d'Aide Medicale Urgente) unit in France, and considers those issues that could be explored in terms of effective UK provision. Recommendations will be proposed for future provision.
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