Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.
J Emerg Med. 2023 Apr;64(4):448-454. doi: 10.1016/j.jemermed.2023.01.002. Epub 2023 Mar 27.
Emergency medical services (EMS) contribute to the vital role of providing health care to an individual by delivering time-sensitive, episodic treatment to patients with acute illnesses. Understanding which factors impact EMS utilization can help guide policies and allocate resources more effectively. Increasing primary care access has often been touted to decrease unnecessary emergency care utilization.
This study seeks to determine whether a relationship exists between access to primary care and EMS utilization.
Using data from the National Emergency Medical Services Information System, Area Health Resources Files, and County Health Rankings and Roadmaps, U.S. county-level data were analyzed to determine whether increased access to primary care (and insurance coverage) was associated with decreased EMS utilization.
Higher primary care availability is associated with less EMS utilization only when insurance coverage in the community surpassed 90%.
Insurance coverage can play an important role in decreasing EMS utilization and may also impact the effect of increased primary care physician availability on EMS utilization in a region.
紧急医疗服务（EMS）通过为患有急性疾病的患者提供及时的、间歇性的治疗，对提供个人医疗保健发挥着至关重要的作用。了解哪些因素会影响 EMS 的使用情况，可以帮助指导政策制定和更有效地分配资源。增加初级保健的可及性通常被吹捧为减少不必要的紧急护理利用。
本研究旨在确定初级保健的可及性与 EMS 使用之间是否存在关系。
利用来自国家紧急医疗服务信息系统、区域卫生资源文件以及美国县卫生排名和路线图的数据，对美国县级数据进行了分析，以确定增加初级保健（和保险覆盖范围）是否与减少 EMS 使用有关。
只有当社区的保险覆盖率超过 90%时，较高的初级保健可及性才与较低的 EMS 使用相关。
保险覆盖范围在减少 EMS 使用方面可以发挥重要作用，并且可能也会影响到一个地区增加初级保健医生可及性对 EMS 使用的影响。
