Meldgaard MB, Borre Jacobsen R; International Society of Technology Assessment in Health Care. Meeting.

Annu Meet Int Soc Technol Assess Health Care Int Soc Technol Assess Health Care Meet. 2002; 18: abstract no. 207.

Hilleroed Hospital, Helsevej 2, DK 3400 Hilleroed, mbm@dsi.dk

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Three different settings of prehospital care have been applied within the past 5 years comprising ambulances with different equipment and different paramedic qualification and authority level. The consequence for the patients, the financial circumstances, how the organisation is structu-red and the public opinion after introduction of these ambulance services is to be examined. A Health Technology Assessment (HTA) has been started with the purpose to evaluate the different kinds of ambulance services. This presentation refer to a part of the HTA; The publics opinion and knowledge about the different kinds of ambulance services in the county. METHODS: Phone interview with 900 citizens from the august to september 2001 in Frederiksborg county and another county as control. The citizens was asked about expectations, experiences and opinion to the ambulance responsetime, the education-level of the paramedics and the expectations for survival dependent on the type of ambulance service. RESULTS: - The expected ambulance responsetime is close to the actual responstime. - Big confidence to the paramedics and their treatment of the patients both before and after the citizens got information about the real qualifications for the paramedics. - The public thinks, that the chances for survival will improve, if it is the special educated paramedic that arrive, and they dosn't change opinion given the fact that chances for survival isn't better. DISCUSSION: The conclusion is that the actual and concrete knowledge about responsetime, effect of survival or the qualifications of the paramedics, NOT have influenced the public feeling of been safe. Knowledge about the existence of a prehospital initiative, increase alone the feeling of safety. More information about pre-hospital care is a method to increase the public feeling of being more safe.

Publication Types:

• Meeting Abstracts

Keywords:

• Ambulances
• Denmark
• Emergency Medical Technicians
• Evaluation Studies
• Humans
• Public Opinion
• methods
• hsrmtgs

Other ID:

• GWHSR0003144

UI: 102274823

From Meeting Abstracts