Background There is a growing demand for emergency medical services (EMS) and patients are repeatedly transported by ambulance services. For many patients, especially those with chronic disease, there may be better ways of delivering care. We examined the symptom at time of emergency call and the hospital diagnosis for those ambulance users who repeatedly received an ambulance. Methods Population-based historic cohort study of patients receiving an ambulance after an emergency call between 2011 and 2014: one-time users (i.e. one ambulance run in any 12 month period) were compared to two-time users (two runs in any 12 month period) and frequent users (>two runs). The presenting symptom according to the Danish Index for Emergency Care from the EMS calls and the hospital ICD-10 discharge diagnoses were obtained from patient records. Results We included 52 533 patients (65 932 emergency ambulance runs). Repeated users constituted 16% of the patients (two-time users 11% and frequent users 5%) and one third of all ambulance runs. The symptoms showing the largest increase in frequency with increasing ambulance use were breathing difficulty ( N = 3 905–15% were frequent users); seizure ( N = 2 437–10% were frequent users), chest pain ( N = 7 616–17% were frequent users), and alcohol intoxication ( N = 1 998–5% were frequent users). The hospital diagnoses with a corresponding increase were respiratory diseases ( N = 4 381) - 13% were frequent users), mental disorders (predominately abuse of alcohol) ( N = 3 087–10% were frequent users) and neurological diseases (predominately epilepsy) ( N = 2 207–6% were frequent users). 5% of one-time users, 12% of two-time users and 16% of frequent users had a Charlson Comorbidity Index > = 3. Conclusion Repeated use of ambulance services was common and associated with chronic health problems such as chronic respiratory diseases, epilepsy, mental disorders with alcohol abuse and comorbidity. Alternative methods of caring for many of these patients should be considered. Trial registration None. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13049-019-0624-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Objective To validate the discrimination and classification accuracy of a novel acute dyspnea scale for identifying outcomes of out‐of‐hospital patients with acute dyspnea. Methods Prospective observational population‐based study in the North Denmark Region. We included patients from July 1, 2017 to September 24, 2019 assessed as having acute dyspnea by the emergency dispatcher or by emergency medical services (EMS) personnel. Patients rated dyspnea using the 11‐point acute dyspnea scale. The primary outcomes were hospitalization >2 days, ICU admission within 48 hours of ambulance run, and 30‐day mortality. We used 5‐fold cross‐validation and area under receiver operating curves (AUC) to assess predictive properties of the acute dyspnea scale score alone and combined with vital data, age, and sex. Results We included 3144 EMS patients with reported dyspnea. Median acute dyspnea scale score was 7 (interquartile range 5 to 8). The outcomes were: 1966 (63%) hospitalized, 164 (5%) ICU stay, and 224 (9%) died within 30 days of calling the ambulance. The acute dyspnea scale score alone showed poor discrimination for hospitalization (AUC 0.56, 95% confidence intervals: 0.54–0.58), intensive care unit admission (0.58, 0.53–0.62), and mortality (0.46, 0.41–0.50). Vital signs (respiratory rate, blood oxygen saturation, blood pressure, and heart rate) showed similarly poor discrimination for all outcomes. The combination of [vital signs + acute dyspnea scale score] showed better discrimination for hospitalization, ICU admission, and mortality (AUC 0.71–0.72). Patients not able to report an acute dyspnea scale score worse outcomes on all parameters. Conclusion The dyspnea scale showed poor accuracy and discrimination when predicting hospitalization, stay at intensive care unit, and mortality on its own. However, the dyspnea scale may be beneficial as performance measure and indicator of out‐of‐hospital care.

Background: Acute dyspnoea is common among ambulance patients, but little is known of the patients' experience of symptom. We aimed to investigate ambulance patients initial perceived intensity of acute dyspnoea, and whether they experienced relief during prehospital treatment. Furthermore, to investigate the validity and feasibility of using a subjective dyspnoea score in the ambulance, and its association with objectively measured vital signs. Methods: We performed a prospective observational study in the North Denmark Region from 1. July 2017 to 30. March 2019. We studied patients over the age of 18 to whom an ambulance was dispatched. Patients with acute dyspnoea assessed either at the emergency call or by ambulance professionals on scene were included. Patients were asked to assess dyspnoea on a 0 to 10 verbal numeric rating scale at the primary contact with the ambulance personnel and immediately before release at the scene or arrival at the hospital. Patients received usual prehospital medical treatment. We used visual inspection and Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test, to assess dyspnoea scores and change hereof. Scatterplots and linear regression analyses were used to assess associations between the dyspnoea score and vital signs. Results: We included 3199 patients with at least one dyspnoea score. Of these, 2219 (69%) had two registered dyspnoea scores. The initial median dyspnoea score for all patients was median 8 (interquartile range 6-10). In 1676 (76%) of patients with two scores, the first score decreased from 8 (6-9) to 4 (2-5) during prehospital treatment. The score was unchanged for 370 (17%) and increased for 51 (2%) patients. Higher respiratory rate, blood pressure, and heart rate was seen with higher dyspnoea scores whereas blood oxygen saturation lowered.

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.