Reasons for Calling Emergency Medical Services as a Reflection of the Needs of the Population and the Priorities in Providing First Aid

Summary. Qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the reasons for calling emergency medical services (EMS) with an assessment of their nosological profile can help to determine conditions that constitute priority for first aid (FA) provision. The purpose of this study was to analyze the reasons for calling EMS and related diagnoses at the level of an individual region. Materials and methods of research. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the reasons for calling EMS and the diagnoses established by the specialists of EMS teams during the corresponding departures registered on the territory of the Republic of Crimea for four calendar months of observation – March, June, September and December 2023. Research results and their analysis. A total of calls to EMS were analyzed for March, June, September and December 2023, respectively. EMS calls to adult patients accounted for 81.8% of calls, EMS calls to children – 11.2% of calls; for 6.9% calls the age of the patients was not recorded. More than half of the EMS calls to adult patients were related to calls for high blood pressure (BP), chest pain (9.4%), abdominal pain (8.5%), and impaired breathing (reason for calling EMS – “suffocating” – 6.9%), injuries and external bleeding (6.0%), hyperthermia (5.2%). Calling EMS to children was most often associated with hyperthermia (43.8%), abdominal pain (12.3%), nausea and vomiting (10.2%), injuries and external bleeding (6.6%) and impaired breathing (6.0%). Even though the contribution of each reason for calling EMS to the totality of observations, as a rule, varied significantly depending on the time of year, the hierarchy of the reasons leading in terms of frequency of occurrence remained unchanged. An assessment of the nosological profile of the dominant reasons for calling EMS showed a connection with health-threatening and life-threatening diseases. At the same time, elevated BP, hyperthermia, chest pain and abdominal pain are not included in Russia in the current official list of conditions for which FA is provided and fall outside the scope of many international and national guidelines on FA. It was concluded that mass provision of FA for these conditions can contribute to a significant reduction in morbidity and mortality of the population and reduce the healthcare burden, which determines the need for their inclusion in the international and domestic scientific and organizational agenda in the field of FA.