Frequent Emergency Medical System users: a regular problem…

Faced with providing services for an increasing population, many of whom are 65 and over, health services internationally are struggling to manage the rising demand for healthcare provision in a context of limited resources and financial hardship.

The researchers behind this Baltimore based pilot study recognized that frequent users of the Emergency Medical System (EMS) further exacerbate pressure on an already fiscally stressed system. The research aimed to determine if early identifcation and focused pre-hospital case management of these individuals reduces the number of required EMS transport and non-transport responses.

This study identifed 25 individuals who most often activated the EMS during the fiscal year 2007. Of these 25 people, only 10 were included in the research because, at the time of the case management intervention, the others were either deceased (n=5), incarcerated (n=2), hospitalized (n=2), residing outside the city limits (n=2), or unable to be located (n=4).

The age range of the 10 participants was between 39 and 89 years, with an average age of 60 years. There were four males and six females; 70% had a mental health and/ or substance abuse diagnosis; and all of the participants had two or more chronic health problems for example, diabetes, hypertension, or heart failure.