Criteria-based emergency medical dispatch of ambulances fulfils goals.

Introduction: In Denmark, Alarm 112 (112) calls and emergency medical dispatch (EMD) are two separate institutions. 112 calls are mainly answered by the police. In Aarhus, a new EMD centre for the Region of Central Jutland (1.2 million people) opened on 1 December 2009. It was the first to employ health-care professionals and to use a new tool for criteria-based dispatch called Danish Index. The aim of the present paper is, for the first time in Denmark, to describe the level of urgency of patients transported by ambulance based on the Danish Index categories A-E and to determine if ambulance response time target values were reached.

Material and methods: The present paper is an observational cohort study based on consecutive, electronically collected data from the initial six months of operation (1 December 2009 to 31 May 2010) of the new EMD centre in Aarhus.

Results: A total of 73,484 patients were included. The distribution according to level of urgency was as follows: A 28.7% (n = 21,104), B 13.5% (n = 9,890), C 21.0% (n = 15,418), D 35.1% (n = 25,818), E 1.7% (n = 1,254). The median ambulance response time intervals for levels A and B were 6.5 and 11.9 min., respectively. Comparison of level A response time intervals with the equivalent target values showed that the 75, 92 and 98 percentiles were 10.0/10 min., 14.6/15 min., 18.6/20 min., respectively.

Conclusion: In a cohort of 73,484 patients, the highest level of urgency (A) was found in 28.7% of cases, while the largest group, 35.1% of patients, were level D cases - these patients had a need for transport, but not by ambulance. The level A target response time requested by 112 was achieved.

Funding: not relevant.

Trial registration: not relevant.