Analysis and strategies of pre-hospital emergency care for a community-based population in urban areas of Fuzhou city in 2010

Abstract

Objective To retrospectively analyze the epidemiological characteristics of pre-hospital emergency care for a community-based population in the urban areas of Fuzhou city and to propose strategies for improving pre-hospital emergency care and the prevention and treatment of common emergency conditions.Methods Data of different sorts of diseases,age,gender,monthly variation in number of cases,time required to response the emergency call and outcome of care were retrospectively analyzed in patients who received pre-hospital emergency care in the urban areas of Fuzhou city in 2010.Results A total of 2130 subjects had pre-hospital emergency care in the urban areas of Fuzhou city.Among them,trauma was the major cause,and was found mainly in youths and adults aged 31-40 years.Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases were the second most common causes and were found mainly in patients aged ＞50 years (especially in those ＞ 70) accounting for 50.57％ in patients of that age cohort.More males than females received pre-hospital emergency care (1.57∶1).A total of 190 patients died during pre-hospital emergency care with trauma (n =69,36.32％),the leading cause of death.Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases were the second leading cause of death and found mainly in patients aged ＞ 50 (n =53) accounting for 81.54％ of deaths in patients of this age cohort.Among patients with sudden death before admission,there was no one had cardiopulmonary resuscitation performed by witness before the emergency care given.Pre-hospital emergency care and pre-hospital deaths were more often occurred in the winter and spring seasons.The time required to response emergency call and the time elapsed to on-site emergency care were (10.0 ± 6.1) min and (11.8 ± 5.9) min,respectively,for patients receiving prehospital emergency care; and the time required to response the emergency call and the time elapsed to onsite emergency care were (11.2 ± 6.2) min and (29.0 ± 21.1) min,respectively,for patients who died during the pre-hospital emergency care.Conclusions (1) It is imperative to provide healthcare education to the community and to improve community awareness of the importance of the disease prevention,especially cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases,whereby this would effectively reduce the incidence of emergency care and sudden death.(2) It is also necessary to promote pre-hospital emergency care and cardiopulmonary resuscitation techniques,which are important for improving pre-hospital emergency care and reducing mortality.(3) Strengthening network integration and enforcing the principle of proximity are also important.Coordination between pre-hospital emergency care workers and other relevant departments may improve the efficiency of the Emergency Medical Service System. Key words: Community-based population; Pre-hospital emergency care; Cardiopulmonary resuscitation; Emergency medical service system; Epidemiological survey; Retrospective analysis