How to Define a Frequent Caller to the Prehospital Emergency Medical Services? Literature-Based vs. Data-Driven...

Area of Science:

• Emergency medicine
• Public health research
• Healthcare system analysis

Background:

• Frequent callers to prehospital emergency medical services (EMS) pose challenges for resource allocation and patient care.
• Existing definitions of frequent callers vary, hindering comparative research and consistent intervention strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate distinct definitions for frequent callers to prehospital EMS.
• To compare these definitions using empirical data and literature review.
• To propose a standardized definition for future research and discussion.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional register study analyzed emergency calls from the Central Denmark Region in 2022.
• Three definitions were tested: literature-based (average calls), top 1% most frequent, and top 0.5% most frequent callers.
• Unadjusted logistic regression analyzed associations between predictive factors and frequent callers.

Main Results:

• The study included 65,522 calls from 49,623 individuals.
• Call thresholds varied: literature-based (≥43), top 1% (≥5), and top 0.5% (≥8) calls annually.
• Frequent callers represented a small population but accounted for a significant proportion of total calls.

Conclusions:

• The top 1% definition is recommended for future research due to its ability to capture the complexity of frequent callers.
• This definition is applicable across different prehospital EMS contexts.
• Frequent callers often exhibit low urgency, recontact within 24 hours, and calls related to behavioral, psychological, or unclear issues.