The study is a retrospective cohort study carried out on the MECU in Odense, the largest city in the region of southern Denmark. In this region, a MECU is on average engaged in 26.2% of all emergency runs.
The MECU in Odense consists of one rapid-response car, operating all year round, manned with a specialist in anaesthesiology and an emergency medical technician. The MECU in Odense covers ∼2500 km2 while servicing a population of ∼250 000. The MECU in Odense refers almost all patients to Odense University Hospital, the largest teaching hospital in the region of southern Denmark. Apart from being dispatched by the dispatch centre, the MECU also responds to requests for assistance from the emergency medical technicians in the ambulance if needed. Furthermore, the MECU handles missions of lesser urgency: involuntary admission to hospitals of psychotic patients and assisting the police in evaluation of particular patients. These missions are all handled as non-emergency runs. After concluding any MECU run, the anaesthesiologist documents the details of the mission in a registry identifying the patient via the patient's unique civil personal register (CPR) number.25 (link) If a patient is initially unidentified, an interim CPR number is constructed thus enabling coupling of data to the patient on proper identification. The physician registers the MECU response time, the diagnosis, the treatment administered, as well as procedures performed. Also, the physician classifies the type of mission completed:
The CPR number is validated by internal control during entering of data, with the MECU registry actively informing the physician if an entered number does not fulfil the criteria for a legitimate CPR number. For patients who are unidentified at the time of MECU contact, the correct CPR number is assigned to the patient by a medical secretary who subsequently contacts the hospital and obtains a correct identification of the patient. The corrected identification number is then linked to the patient by the medical secretary who re-enters the information in the database.
The MECU in Odense consists of one rapid-response car, operating all year round, manned with a specialist in anaesthesiology and an emergency medical technician. The MECU in Odense covers ∼2500 km2 while servicing a population of ∼250 000. The MECU in Odense refers almost all patients to Odense University Hospital, the largest teaching hospital in the region of southern Denmark. Apart from being dispatched by the dispatch centre, the MECU also responds to requests for assistance from the emergency medical technicians in the ambulance if needed. Furthermore, the MECU handles missions of lesser urgency: involuntary admission to hospitals of psychotic patients and assisting the police in evaluation of particular patients. These missions are all handled as non-emergency runs. After concluding any MECU run, the anaesthesiologist documents the details of the mission in a registry identifying the patient via the patient's unique civil personal register (CPR) number.25 (link) If a patient is initially unidentified, an interim CPR number is constructed thus enabling coupling of data to the patient on proper identification. The physician registers the MECU response time, the diagnosis, the treatment administered, as well as procedures performed. Also, the physician classifies the type of mission completed:
patient released at the scene or admitted to hospital by ambulance with or without physician escort;
patient declared dead with or without reliable signs of death;
mission down-prioritised before or after patient contact in favour of other mission;
MECU cancelled by ambulance;
stand-by missions (fires, police actions);
patient not found;
miscellaneous.
The CPR number is validated by internal control during entering of data, with the MECU registry actively informing the physician if an entered number does not fulfil the criteria for a legitimate CPR number. For patients who are unidentified at the time of MECU contact, the correct CPR number is assigned to the patient by a medical secretary who subsequently contacts the hospital and obtains a correct identification of the patient. The corrected identification number is then linked to the patient by the medical secretary who re-enters the information in the database.