Non-conveyance within the Swedish ambulance service : A prehospital patient safety study

• BackgroundThere is an increasing demand for ambulance services and more patients than before are requesting ambulance assistance for low acuity conditions. Ambulance services non-convey patients because they lack acute care needs. Non-conveying patients can be a person-centred, resource- and cost-efficient measure and can allow the ambulance to become available sooner for patients with more acute illnesses or injuries. However, validated non-conveyance guidelines are lacking and non-conveying patients raises patient safety issues.AimThe overarching aim of the research project was to describe the patients that were non-conveyed, to explore if there were any potential patient safety issues with the regional non-conveyance guidelines, and to describe how patients and nurses experience non-conveyance.MethodsAll non-conveyance assignments during one year in a region in Sweden (n=2691) were consecutively and prospectively included. The quantitative data was described, compared, and analysed (Studies I and II). Two interview studies were carried out. Phenomenography and conventional content analysis were used to analyse the qualitative data. In total 14 patients were interviewed in Study III and 20 nurses were interviewed in Study IV.Conclusions Patients of all ages with varying characteristics and complaints were non-conveyed. No patient received intensive care, and few were admitted to in-hospital care or died within seven days after being non-conveyed. Older age increases the risk of hospitalisation and death. Patients could feel ashamed for being non-conveyed, and the ambulance nurse could feel frustration when believing that the ambulance resource was misused

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Annan hälsovetenskap (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Other Health Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Ambulance

Ambulance nurse

Ambulance service

Emergency medical services

Non-conveyance

Non‐transport

Nurse

Patient

Patient assessment

Patient-safety

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

dok (ämneskategori)