Helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) activity after increased distance to out-of-hours services: an observational study from Norway
Dublin Core
Title
Helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) activity after increased distance to out-of-hours services: an observational study from Norway
Subject
Emergency medical services, Primary health care, Air ambulances, Norway, HEMS, General practitioners,
After-hours care, Out-of-hours medical care
After-hours care, Out-of-hours medical care
Description
Background: Organizational changes in out-of-hour (OOH) services may have unintended consequences for other
prehospital services. Reports indicate an increased use of helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) after
changes in OOH services in Norway due to greater geographical distances for the on-call doctors. We investigated
whether HEMS dispatches increased when nine municipalities in Sogn og Fjordane County merged into one large
inter-municipal OOH district.
Methods: All primary dispatches of the HEMS in the county between 2004 and 2013 were included. We applied
interrupted time series regression to monthly aggregated data to evaluate the impact of the organizational change
1 April 2009. The nine target municipalities were compared to the rest of the municipalities in the county, which
served as a control group. A quasipoisson model adjusted for seasonality was found to be most applicable.
Results: We included 8,751 dispatches, 5,009 (57.2%) of which were completed with a patient encounter. Overall,
we found no alteration in requests for HEMS after 2009 (p = 0.251). Separate analyses of the target municipalities
and control group revealed no significant increase after 2009 (p = 0.400 and p = 0.056, respectively). When
categorizing the municipalities into urban or rural, we found a general increase in HEMS dispatches for the rural
group over the 10-year span (p = 0.045) but no added increase after 2009 (p = 0.502). The urban subgroup showed
no change. Distance from the OOH service in regards to travel increased within the nine municipalities after 2009,
median [quartiles] (5.0[3.0, 6.2] km vs 26.5[5.0, 62.2] km, p < 0.001).
Conclusion: After relocating nine local OOH services into one large inter-municipal OOH district, we found no
increase in requests for HEMS.
prehospital services. Reports indicate an increased use of helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) after
changes in OOH services in Norway due to greater geographical distances for the on-call doctors. We investigated
whether HEMS dispatches increased when nine municipalities in Sogn og Fjordane County merged into one large
inter-municipal OOH district.
Methods: All primary dispatches of the HEMS in the county between 2004 and 2013 were included. We applied
interrupted time series regression to monthly aggregated data to evaluate the impact of the organizational change
1 April 2009. The nine target municipalities were compared to the rest of the municipalities in the county, which
served as a control group. A quasipoisson model adjusted for seasonality was found to be most applicable.
Results: We included 8,751 dispatches, 5,009 (57.2%) of which were completed with a patient encounter. Overall,
we found no alteration in requests for HEMS after 2009 (p = 0.251). Separate analyses of the target municipalities
and control group revealed no significant increase after 2009 (p = 0.400 and p = 0.056, respectively). When
categorizing the municipalities into urban or rural, we found a general increase in HEMS dispatches for the rural
group over the 10-year span (p = 0.045) but no added increase after 2009 (p = 0.502). The urban subgroup showed
no change. Distance from the OOH service in regards to travel increased within the nine municipalities after 2009,
median [quartiles] (5.0[3.0, 6.2] km vs 26.5[5.0, 62.2] km, p < 0.001).
Conclusion: After relocating nine local OOH services into one large inter-municipal OOH district, we found no
increase in requests for HEMS.
Creator
Dag Ståle Nystøyl , Jo Røislien, Øyvind Østerås, Steinar Hunskaar, Hans Johan Breidablik and Erik Zakariassen
Publisher
BMC Emergency Medicine
Date
(2020) 20:88
Contributor
Fajar bagus W
Format
PDF
Language
Indonesia
Type
Text
Files
Collection
Citation
Dag Ståle Nystøyl , Jo Røislien, Øyvind Østerås, Steinar Hunskaar, Hans Johan Breidablik and Erik Zakariassen, “Helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) activity after increased distance to out-of-hours services: an observational study from Norway,” Repository Horizon University Indonesia, accessed February 5, 2025, https://repository.horizon.ac.id/items/show/3584.