Patient Safety : European Perspectives – Sweden.

• Calling for an ambulance is not something that a person would normally do without hesitating. He/she might fear that s/he will not handle the situation, neither on their own nor with help from relatives. He/she might even fear for their life. The answer to their call, “we will send an ambulance for you”, makes him/her being defined as a patient. Dealing with patients puts special demands on ambulance staff. They need to gather information from their patients and their relatives and conduct the first assessment. Thereafter they need to decide which treatment and care should be administered on the spot or if care and transport to hospital is more crucial. In these situations, patient safety is to make the right decision and perform the right measures with quality. In order to maintain good patient safety, strong governmental regulations are needed in many areas. Patient safety in prehospital emergency care concerns the whole ‘care chain’, from that first call to the hand-over at the receiving department. Previous research shows that in prehospital emergency care, patient safety is strongly connected to assessing the patient, having a good driver, performing care during transport, maintaining quality and adapting all medical equipment to mobile treatment and care. To maintain high standard, the ambulance staff should have good health status, both physically and mentally. Also, all regulations and rules must aim to support patient safety.

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