Patient-tailored Triage Decisions by Anesthesiologist-staffed Prehospital Critical Care Teams

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The primary objective was to estimate the incidence of patients in the Central Denmark Region triaged to bypass the local emergency department without being part of a predefined fast-track protocol. The secondary objective was to describe these triage decisions in more detail with regard to the most common diagnoses, incidence of direct referral sorted by the prehospital critical care team (PHCCT) and the destination hospital. Our results demonstrate that in 1 out of 40 patient contacts, the anesthesiologist-staffed PHCCTs in the Central Denmark Region divert critically ill and injured patients directly to a specialized hospital department, bypassing local emergency departments and potentially reducing time to definitive care for these patients. There may be a potential for increased referral of patients with no predefined fast-track directly to specialized departments in the Central Denmark Region.

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