Acute care pathways for patients calling the out-of-hours services.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:In Western countries, patients with acute illness or injury out-of-hours (OOH) can call either emergency medical services (EMS) for emergencies or primary care services (OOH-PC) in less urgent situations. Callers initially choose which service to contact; whether this choice reflect the intended differences in urgency and severity is unknown. Hospital diagnoses and admission rates following an OOH service contact could elucidate this. We aimed to investigate and compare the prevalence of patient contacts, subsequent hospital contacts, and the age-related pattern of hospital diagnoses following an out-of-hours contact to EMS or OOH-PC services in Denmark. METHODS:Population-based observational cohort study including patients from two Danish regions with contact to EMS or OOH-PC i

SUBMITTER: Sovso MB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7045402 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature