Use of pre-hospital emergency medical services in urban and rural municipalities over a 10 year period: an observational study based on routinely collected dispatch data

摘要

BackgroundPre-hospital emergency medical services (EMS) are an integral part of emergency medical care. EMS planning can be achieved by analyzing patterns of use. However, long-term time trends of EMS use have rarely been studied. The objective of this retrospective study was to investigate utilization patterns over a ten year period, and to compare utilization trends between urban and rural municipalities and between events with and without prehospital emergency physician (PEP) dispatch.