title: Does the Norwegian emergency medical dispatch classification as non-urgent predict no need for pre-hospital medical treatment? An observational study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The number of ambulance call-outs in Norway is increasing owing to societal changes and increased demand from the public. Together with improved but more expensive education of ambulance staff, this leads to increased costs and staffing shortages. We wanted to study whether the current dispatch triage tools could reliably identify patients who only required transport, and not pre-hospital medical care. This could allow selection of such patients for designated transport units, freeing up highly trained ambulance staff to attend patients in greater need.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional observational study was used, drawing on all electronic and paper records in our ambulance service from four random days in 2012. The patients were classified into acuity groups, based on Emergency Medical Dispatch codes, and pre-hospital interventions were extracted from the Patient Report Forms.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 1489 ambulance call-outs included in this study, 82 PRFs (5 %) were missing. A highly significant association was found between acuity group and recorded pre-hospital intervention (p ≤ 0.001). We found no correlation between gender, distance to hospital, age and pre-hospital interventions. Ambulances staffed by paramedics performed more interventions (234/917, 26 %) than those with emergency medical technicians (42/282, 15 %). The strongest predictor for needing pre-hospital interventions was found to be the emergency medical dispatch acuity descriptor.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study has demonstrated that the Norwegian dispatch system is able to correctly identify patients who do not need pre-hospital interventions. Patients with a low acuity code had a very low level of pre-hospital interventions. Evaluation of adherence to protocol in the Emergency Medical Dispatch is not possible due to the inherent need for medical experience in the triage process.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study validates the Norwegian dispatch tool (Norwegian index) as a predictor of patients who do not need pre-hospital interventions.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health and Society, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, PO Box 1130, Blindern, 0318, Oslo, Norway. eystein@grusd.no.|Division of Prehospital Services, Ambulance Department, Oslo University Hospital HF, PO Box 4950, Nydalen, 0424, Oslo, Norway. eystein@grusd.no.
authors.forename: Eystein
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Grusd
authors.affiliation: Division of Prehospital Services, Ambulance Department, Oslo University Hospital HF, PO Box 4950, Nydalen, 0424, Oslo, Norway.|Norwegian National Advisory Unit on Prehospital Emergency Medicine (NAKOS), Oslo University Hospital and University of Oslo, Ullevål, PO Box 4950, Nydalen, 0424, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Jo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kramer-Johansen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000552:Ambulances; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004630:Emergencies; D000071820:Emergency Medical Dispatch / Q000145:classification*; D004631:Emergency Medical Service Communication Systems / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009664:Norway; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014218:Triage / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Acuity level; Ambulance service; Emergency medical dispatch; Need predictor; Norway; Pre-hospital medical treatment