title: The Danish quality database for prehospital emergency medical services.
abstract: The aim of the Danish quality database for prehospital emergency medical services (QEMS) is to assess, monitor, and improve the quality of prehospital emergency medical service care in the entire prehospital patient pathway. The aim of this review is to describe the design and the implementation of QEMS.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study population consists of all "112 patient contacts" defined as emergency patients, where the entrance to health care is a 112 call forwarded to one of the five regional emergency medical coordination centers in Denmark since January 1, 2014. Estimated annual number of included "112 patients" is 300,000-350,000.
  
  
  METHODS
  We defined nine quality indicators and the following variables: time stamps for emergency calls received at one of the five regional emergency medical coordination centers, dispatch of prehospital unit(s), arrival of first prehospital unit, arrival of first supplemental prehospital unit, and mission completion. Finally, professional level and type of the prehospital resource dispatched to an incident and end-of-mission status (mission completed by phone, on scene, or admission to hospital) are registered.
  Descriptive data included age, region, and Danish Index for Emergency Care including urgency level.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  QEMS is a new database under establishment and is expected to provide the basis for quality improvement in the prehospital setting and in the entire patient care pathway, for example, by providing prehospital data for research and other quality databases.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Institute, Aalborg University; Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg; Prehospital Emergency Medical Services, North Denmark Region.
authors.forename: Erika
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Frischknecht Christensen
authors.affiliation: Copenhagen Emergency Medical Services, Copenhagen.
authors.forename: Peter Anthony
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Berlac
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: Christian Fynbo
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Christiansen
keywords: ambulance response times; emergency medical dispatch; emergency medical services; quality improvement