Research Information System
10th European Congress on Emergency Medicine, Viyana, Austria, 1 - 05 October 2016, pp.728
Objective: The study was carried out in order to evaluate the time, place and ambulance characteristics of medical transportations by 112 Emergency Health Services (EHS) of Çanakkale from islands of Gökçeada and Bozcaada from 2009 to 2013.
Materials and Methods: The study is a descriptive-cross sectional epidemiological study. The universe of the study was consisted of all of the patient registration forms which were completed for the patients transferred in ambulances from Bozcaada and Gökçeada islands between the dates of 01.01.2009 and 31.12.2013. A total of 1,144 forms were analyzed. The data of the study were obtained from the electronic database of Çanakkale EHS which was based on these registration forms. SPSS 15.0 program was used to compute the descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA and chi-square statistics. The variables were time (year, season, month, hour, ambulance times), place (ambulance station/region) and ambulance type. Official permissions were obtained from the relevant institutions to conduct the study.
Results: Of the medical transportations (patient transfers), 28.1% were in the year of 2012; 39.5% were in summer; 16.6% were in July; 37.1% were in between 12:00-17:59 p.m.; and 61.5% were transfers from Gökçeada island. In regard to the ambulance type in the transfers from these two islands, ground ambulances (via ferries) were the most preferred one. The findings indicated that while the ground ambulances were dispatched more for the transfers from Bozcaada island, the sea and air ambulances were dispatched more for the transfers from Gökçeada island. The use of the air ambulance service had an inverse impact on the use of the sea and ground ambulances. In regard to the ambulance types used during the transfers, a maximum of three-ambulance types (ground-sea-ground and ground-air-ground ambulances) were dispatched. The time of transfers from Bozcaada island was found to be shorter (The average of total transfer time is 57 minutes [S=26, min-max. 28-140 minutes] and the median is 45 minutes). The harbor most commonly used as an intermediate transfer hub was the harbor of Çanakkale during the transfers carried out by sea ambulances from both islands. It was concluded that there were more transfers from Bozcaada island than Gökçeada island in between 00.00-05.59 a.m. (p<0,001) and more transfers by ground ambulances than any other ambulance type in between 6 p.m.-05.59 a.m. (p<0,001). The air ambulance use in the transfers from the islands of Çanakkale was more in the year of 2010 than the other years (p<0,001). Among the transfer routes from the islands, the transfer route involving the types of Ground-Air-Ground ambulances was found to be used more than other types [F(4-768) =77,488; p<0,001].
Conclusion: The ground ambulances were mostly dispatched from Bozcaada island, whereas the sea and air ambulances were mostly dispatched from Gökçeada island. While the use of air ambulances increased, the use of sea and ground ambulances decreased. The ambulance times other than helicopter ambulances made us think that many of the transfers were not emergency cases.