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Background: The Western Norway Regional Health Authority uses SATS Norge (SATS-N), a modified version of the South African Triage Scale, in all accident and emergency departments (A&E) and ambulance services in the region. The purpose of the study was to examine the validity of the paediatric component of SATS-N used for children transported to hospital by ambulance for emergency medical assistance., Material and Method: We conducted a retrospective observational study which included all children in the age group 0-14 years, admitted by ambulance to A&E at Haukeland University Hospital for emergency medical assistance in the period from January to June 2020. The five triage levels in SATS-N were dichotomised to high triage level (the two highest triage categories) or low triage level (the three lowest triage categories). Sensitivity was calculated as the proportion of patients assigned to the high triage level among those who were directly transferred from A&E to a high dependency unit, and specificity as the proportion of patients assigned to the low triage level among those who were not directly transferred to a high dependency unit., Results: Of a total of 303 patient transports, 270 (89 %) were triaged in the ambulance and 243 (80 %) in the A&E. In the pre-hospital and A&E settings, the sensitivity of SATS-N was 96 % and 88 %, and specificity was 46 % and 60 %, respectively., Interpretation: For children admitted to hospital by ambulance, SATS-N had high sensitivity and low specificity for identifying patients who needed to be directly transferred from A&E to a high dependency unit.

Background: Several earlier studies have shown that doctors in local out-of-hours emergency primary health care participate in call-outs to varying degrees. It is the out-of-hours doctor who decides whether to respond with a call-out. We wished to study the assessments that form the basis of this decision., Material and Method: We interviewed the out-of-hours doctors in the county of Hordaland who had been alerted about an emergency incident on the health radio network during an evening or night shift, apart from at weekends. The interview period lasted from July to October 2012 and was linked directly to specific alarm calls., Results: There were 252 relevant incidents, 72 of which were investigated. A total of 47 of the 95 doctors contacted were interviewed (49%). The doctor responded with a call-out in 65 % of the incidents. Normally it was the content of the message about the patient's medical condition that was critical for the doctor's decision to respond with a call-out, while it was most often practical aspects that meant that she/he did not respond in this way. When the doctor responded with a call-out, and later assessed the call-out as necessary, the patient's need for medical expertise was the most important reason given., Interpretation: In the incidents studied, the decision on whether or not to respond with a call-out was based on a balanced consideration of the patient's needs and what was practically possible for the doctor. The out-of-hours doctors experienced a need for medical expertise in many emergency medical situations.

Background: Out-of-hours services in Norway have not been systematically assessed and no national statistics exist. This article reports a pilot study of requests to three casualty clinics and the activities related to these requests., Material and Methods: All requests to the three clinics, day and night for four weeks in the spring of 2006, were recorded. Variables and definitions were discussed with all participating personnel before start. A coordinator at each casualty clinic was responsible for ensuring data quality and sending data to the study centre weekly., Results: 5,041 requests were recorded. Contact rates per 1,000 inhabitants ranged from 29 to 84. In two casualty clinics a large majority of the contacts were given the priority grade "not urgent". In one casualty clinic the rate "acute" was more than twice the rate in the two others. The rate of consultation with GPs differed, but the rate of home visits and acute response by ambulance and GP was low in all the casualty clinics., Interpretation: Large differences were identified regarding several factors affecting requests to casualty clinics in Norway. This pilot study supports the need for a larger and more representative study.

Introduction: An important factor determining survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is how fast the ambulance personnel can reach the patient., Materials and Methods: In a two-year period between 1996 and 1998, all ambulance calls to patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Oslo were evaluated. Of 1,026 cardiac arrests, 130 were excluded because of missing data., Results: The median ambulance response interval was 7.2 min (5.7-9.0 as 25-75% percentiles). There was a tendency to shorter response intervals to the central parts of Oslo with medians between 3 and 4 min, while 14 more peripheral boroughs had median response intervals over 8 min. Of the 627 cases where the ambulance starting point was registered, 76% were from the only ambulance station in Oslo, located downtown., Interpretation: In our opinion, the median ambulance response interval is unsatisfactory in large parts of Oslo, as a long response time gives a dramatically lower survival rate after cardiac arrest. A reorganisation and decentralization of the Oslo Emergency Medical Service System seems necessary.

Background: There are few Norwegian recommendations for quality and efficacy of ambulance performance. A report commissioned by the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs concluded that the ambulance service was the weakest link in the chain of survival. The report proposed standards for response intervals in emergencies: 90% of the population in cities and urban areas should be reached by an ambulance within eight minutes. In rural areas, 90% should be reached within 25 minutes., Material and Methods: This study describes the ambulance response interval for the 2,589 red code emergencies in the 15 municipalities in Vestfold County in 1998, a county with a population of 208,687, or 97.5 inhabitants per square kilometre, with seven ambulance stations. A retrospective analysis was made of data for the year 1998., Results: The proposed standard was not reached in any municipality in the county. The city of Tønsberg had the best performance, but even here only 48.9% of the population were reached by ambulance within eight minutes. The worst performance was found in the rural municipality of Tjøme; here, only 63.3% were reached within 25 minutes., Interpretation: Achieving the standards proposed will require a major restructuring of existing ambulance services.

The aim of this study was to describe the dispatch of emergency ambulance requests in Trondheim and to evaluate the medical justification of such ambulance missions. Data concerning 555 emergency ambulance missions were recorded from March to August 1986. A review of the cases shows that almost 40 per cent were unjustified. However, whether the ambulance missions were justified or not was significantly connected to the age of the patient and with the person requesting the ambulance. Missions requested by health care professionals and missions to elderly patients were the most justified ones. Furthermore, the mission was more justified in the case of internal medical problems than for surgical cases and trauma. We also discuss different ways of improving the use made of emergency medical services outside hospital.