Objectives-To evaluate the handling of potential cardiac emergency calls by dispatchers, to determine their final diagnosis and urgency, and to determine the value of the main complaint in predicting urgency and the ability of the dispatchers to recognise non-urgent conditions. Design-Prospective data collection and recording of main complaint of emergency calls placed via the 06-11 alarm telephone number with follow up to hospital when the patients were transported and the general practitioner when they were not.

Abstract:This article describes a system for the optimization of the pre-hospital assessment of emergency, in cases involving thoraco-abdominal complaints and consciousness problems. This assessment is performed by nurses on the basis of a telephone interview at ambulance dispatch centers. The system has a body of biomedical and policy knowledge available to guide the interview and to provide advice.

No abstract