Collaboration between ambulance services and primary care: a scoping review protocol.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Emergency Medical Services
• Primary Care Medicine

Background:

• Effective decision-making for older patients with diffuse symptoms presents challenges for healthcare professionals.
• Collaboration between ambulance services and primary care is limited, impacting care quality and costs.
• There is a need to understand how to effectively implement collaboration between these services.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore existing collaboration models between ambulance services and primary care.
• To identify characteristics and outcomes of these collaboration models.
• To identify current research gaps in ambulance service and primary care collaboration.

Main Methods:

• This scoping review follows the Arksey and O'Malley framework, enhanced by the Joanna Briggs Institute Handbook.
• A comprehensive literature search of multiple databases (PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, Scopus) and grey literature sources will be conducted.
• Data analysis will be descriptive, with findings categorized by collaboration models and patterns identified through inductive analysis.

Main Results:

• This section is to be filled after the review is completed.

Conclusions:

• This review is the initial phase of the Extended Collaboration between Ambulance services and Primary care (ECAP) project.
• Findings will inform practice and policy through publications, presentations, and stakeholder engagement.
• The study protocol is registered on the Open Science Framework; no ethical approval is required as no participants are involved.