Department of Emergency Medicine and Critical Care, St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Department of Emergency Medicine and Critical Care nursing, St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
BMC Emerg Med. 2019 Apr 18;19(1):28. doi: 10.1186/s12873-019-0242-5.
The increasing burdens of trauma and time sensitive non-communicable disease in Addis Ababa necessitate a robust emergency medical care system. The objectives of this study were to assess the proportion of patients who used emergency medical services (EMS) and to quantitatively and qualitatively assess barriers to EMS utilization in Addis Ababa.
A cross-sectional quantitative and qualitative study was conducted on patients who visited five selected public hospitals in Addis Ababa with specific emergency conditions. Data were collected by trained nurses using a standardized questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression was done on cleaned and coded quantitative data using SPSS version 20. Thematic analysis was performed on the qualitative data. Ethical approval was obtained prior to the study.
A total of 429 participants completed the survey with a non-response rate of 5.1%. The most common emergency scene was the home (n = 222, 51.8%) followed by road side (n = 159, 37.1%). Only 87(20.3%) patients arrived by ambulance, though a majority (53.4%) of participants recalled at least one access number for an ambulance service and 96.3% stated that ambulances were an important part of the continuum of care for their emergency condition. A higher proportion of participants believed that ambulance transportation is generally safer (n = 341, 78.5%) and faster (n = 298, 69.5%) than emergency transport by taxi or private car. Patients who were non-Amharic speaking had a negative association with arriving by ambulance (P = 0.001, OR 0.47; C.I, 0.31, 0.71). The median acceptable time to get the ambulance (according to respondent's perception) was 16 min but actually perceived ambulance waiting time was 40 min.
EMS utilization in Addis Ababa is relatively low and emergency patients are instead being transported by taxi or private car. Perceived longer ambulance waiting time and language barriers may have contributed for low utilization. Findings of this study suggest an action to improve access by improving ambulance availability while simultaneously enhancing the public's knowledge and perception of EMS in Addis Ababa.
创伤和时间敏感的非传染性疾病负担在亚的斯亚贝巴不断增加，这需要一个强大的紧急医疗服务系统。本研究的目的是评估使用紧急医疗服务（EMS）的患者比例，并定量和定性评估亚的斯亚贝巴 EMS 使用的障碍。
对在亚的斯亚贝巴五家选定的公立医院就诊的具有特定紧急情况的患者进行了横断面定量和定性研究。训练有素的护士使用标准化问卷收集数据。使用 SPSS 版本 20 对清洁和编码后的定量数据进行描述性统计和逻辑回归。对定性数据进行主题分析。在研究之前获得了伦理批准。
共有 429 名参与者完成了调查，无应答率为 5.1%。最常见的紧急情况发生在家庭（n=222，51.8%），其次是路边（n=159，37.1%）。只有 87 名（20.3%）患者乘坐救护车到达，尽管大多数（53.4%）参与者至少记住了一个救护车服务的联系号码，96.3%的人表示救护车是他们紧急情况连续护理的重要组成部分。更多的参与者认为救护车运输通常更安全（n=341，78.5%）和更快（n=298，69.5%），而不是乘坐出租车或私家车进行紧急运输。不会说阿姆哈拉语的患者与乘坐救护车有负面关联（P=0.001，OR 0.47；C.I，0.31，0.71）。根据受访者的看法，救护车到达的可接受时间中位数为 16 分钟，但实际上感知的救护车等待时间为 40 分钟。
亚的斯亚贝巴的 EMS 使用相对较低，紧急患者而是乘坐出租车或私家车进行运输。感知的救护车等待时间较长和语言障碍可能导致使用率较低。本研究的结果表明，通过增加救护车的可用性来改善获取途径，同时增强公众对亚的斯亚贝巴 EMS 的知识和看法，可以采取行动来改善获取途径。
