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Background The number of patients calling for an ambulance increases. A considerable number of patients receive a non-specific diagnosis at discharge from the hospital, and this could imply less serious acute conditions, but the mortality has only scarcely been studied. The aim of this study was to examine the most frequent sub-diagnoses among patients with hospital non-specific diagnoses after calling 112 and their subsequent mortality. Methods A historical cohort study of patients brought to the hospital by ambulance after calling 112 in 2007-2014 and diagnosed with a non-specific diagnosis, chapter R or Z, in the International Classification of Diseases, 10 th edition (ICD-10). 1-day and 30-day mortality was analyzed by survival analyses and compared by the log-rank test. Results We included 74,847 ambulance runs in 53,937 unique individuals. The most frequent diagnoses were ‘unspecified disease’ (Z039), constituting 47.0 % (n 35,279). In children 0-9 years old, ‘febrile convulsions’ was the most frequent non-specific diagnosis used in 54.3 % (n 1,602). Overall, 1- and 30-day mortality was 2.2 % (n 1,205) and 6.0 % (n 3,258). The highest mortality was in the diagnostic group ‘suspected cardiovascular disease’ (Z035) and ‘unspecified disease’ (Z039) with 1-day mortality 2.6 % (n 43) and 2.4 % (n 589), and 30 day mortality of 6.32 % (n 104) and 8.1 % (n 1,975). Conclusion Among patients calling an ambulance and discharged with non-specific diagnoses the 1- and 30-day mortality, despite modest mortality percentages lead to a high number of deaths.

Background: The number of patients calling for an ambulance increases. A considerable number of patients receive a non-specific diagnosis at discharge from the hospital, and this could imply less serious acute conditions, but the mortality has only scarcely been studied. The aim of this study was to examine the most frequent subdiagnoses among patients with hospital non-specific diagnoses after calling 112 and their subsequent mortality. Methods: A historical cohort study of patients brought to the hospital by ambulance after calling 112 in 2007-2014 and diagnosed with a non-specific diagnosis, chapter R or Z, in the International Classification of Diseases, 10th edition (ICD-10). 1-day and 30-day mortality was analyzed by survival analyses and compared by the log-rank test. Results: We included 74,847 ambulance runs in 53,937 unique individuals. The most frequent diagnoses were 'unspecified disease' (Z039), constituting 47.0% (n 35,279). In children 0-9 years old, 'febrile convulsions' was the most frequent non-specific diagnosis used in 54.3% (n 1602). Overall, 1-and 30-day mortality was 2.2% (n 1205) and 6.0% (n 3258). The highest mortality was in the diagnostic group 'suspected cardiovascular disease' (Z035) and 'unspecified disease' (Z039) with 1-day mortality 2.6% (n 43) and 2.4% (n 589), and 30 day mortality of 6.32% (n 104) and 8.1% (n 1975). Conclusion: Among patients calling an ambulance and discharged with non-specific diagnoses the 1-and 30-day mortality, despite modest mortality percentages lead to a high number of deaths.

Background The number of patients calling for an ambulance increases. A considerable number of patients receive a non-specific diagnosis at discharge from the hospital, and this could imply less serious acute conditions, but the mortality has only scarcely been studied. The aim of this study was to examine the most frequent sub-diagnoses among patients with hospital non-specific diagnoses after calling 112 and their subsequent mortality.Methods A historical cohort study of patients brought to the hospital by ambulance after calling 112 in 2007-2014 and diagnosed with a non-specific diagnosis, chapter R or Z, in the International Classification of Diseases, 10th edition (ICD-10). 1-day and 30-day mortality was analyzed by survival analyses and compared by the log-rank test. Results We included 74,847 ambulance runs in 53,937 unique individuals. The most frequent diagnoses were ‘unspecified disease’ (Z039), constituting 47.0 % (n 35,279). In children 0-9 years old, ‘febrile convulsions’ was the most frequent non-specific diagnosis used in 54.3 % (n 1,602). Overall, 1- and 30-day mortality was 2.2 % (n 1,205) and 6.0 % (n 3,258). The highest mortality was in the diagnostic group ‘suspected cardiovascular disease’ (Z035) and ‘unspecified disease’ (Z039) with 1-day mortality 2.6 % (n 43) and 2.4 % (n 589), and 30 day mortality of 6.32 % (n 104) and 8.1 % (n 1,975).Conclusion Among patients calling an ambulance and discharged with non-specific diagnoses the 1- and 30-day mortality, despite modest mortality percentages lead to a high number of deaths.

Objective Childhood brain tumors belong to the cancer type with the longest diagnostic delay, the highest health care utilization prior to diagnosis, and the highest burden of long-term sequelae. We aimed to clarify whether prior musculoskeletal diagnoses in childhood brain cancer were misdiagnoses and whether it affected the diagnostic delay. Study design In this retrospective, chart-reviewed case-control study we compared 28 children with brain tumors and a prior musculoskeletal diagnosis to a sex and age-matched control group of 56 children with brain tumors and no prior musculoskeletal diagnosis. Using the Danish registries, the cases were identified from consecutive cases of childhood brain cancers in Denmark over 23 years (1996-2018). Results Of 931 children with brain tumors, 3% (28/931) had a prior musculoskeletal diagnosis, of which 39% (11/28) were misdiagnoses. The misdiagnoses primarily included torticollis-related diagnoses which tended to a longer time interval from first hospital contact until a specialist was involved: 35 days (IQR 6-166 days) compared to 3 days (IQR 1-48 days), p = 0.07. When comparing the 28 children with a prior musculoskeletal diagnosis with a matched control group without a prior musculoskeletal diagnosis, we found no difference in the non-musculoskeletal clinical presentation, the diagnostic time interval, or survival. Conclusion Musculoskeletal misdiagnoses were rare in children with brain tumors and did not affect the diagnostic time interval or survival. The misdiagnoses consisted primarily of torticollis- or otherwise neck-related diagnoses.