Trend of care for external causes in the Mobile Emergency Care Service

Abstract

Objective

To analyze the trend and impacts caused by regionalization in emergency care for external causes performed by the Mobile Emergency Care Service (SAMU), before, during and after the regionalization process.

Method

This is an ecological study of SAMU care trend. The periods were separated in 2010 to 2012 (pre-regionalization), 2013 to 2015 (transition) and 2016 to 2018 (consolidation). The variables cause of care, day of the week, time, occurrence site, resource forwarded and victim characterization (gender, age, alcohol use and outcome of care) were collected, totaling 17,533 occurrences. Care that did not qualify as external causes was excluded. Descriptive statistics, trends and chi-square association test were performed. A significance level of 5% (p-value≤0.001) was adopted.

Results

Most victims were male, with a higher prevalence in the age group of 30 to 59 years. There was a decrease in death at the site of 41.7% after regionalization. There was an increase in care of external causes in Basic Life Support ambulances in 2015 compared to 2010 (47%), in addition to a decrease of approximately 50% in the number of Advanced Life Support services. The number of joint care of the two ambulances increased approximately 390%.

Conclusion

Regionalization had an important impact on the quality of care provided to the population, resulting in a decrease in mortality at the occurrence site.

Ambulatory care; Emergency medical services; External causes; Health policy; Epidemiology