Emergency Air Transport of Patients with Acute Chest Pain in the Adriatic Islands of Croatia: A Four-Year Analysis

Antonija Zanic, Vedran Kovacic () and Ivana Jukic
Additional contact information
Antonija Zanic: Institute of Emergency Medicine of Split–Dalmatia County, 21000 Split, Croatia
Vedran Kovacic: Internal Medicine Department, Division of Emergency and Intensive Medicine with Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, University Hospital of Split, 21000 Split, Croatia
Ivana Jukic: Internal Medicine Department, Gastroenterology Division, University Hospital of Split, 21000 Split, Croatia

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 7, 1-13

Abstract: Background: An efficient first-aid system usually supports ground services with a helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS). An HEMS is important for patients with acute chest pain on remote islands. The current study sought to identify the characteristics of HEMS in acute chest pain cases on the Croatian Adriatic islands over a four-year period. Methods: We conducted a four-year observational study to investigate HEMS from Adriatic islands. The study population consisted of all patients with acute coronary syndrome or pulmonary embolisms who were urgently transferred by HEMS to the University Hospital in Split 1 June 2018–1 June 2022. Results: During the observation period, 222 adult patients (67 females, or 30.2%) were urgently transferred. The mean age was 71.81 ± 13.42 years. The most common diagnosis was ST-elevated myocardial infarction (113, 50.9%). Most of the HEMS cases were from Hvar (91, 41.0%). The mean call-to-flight time was 19.10 ± 10.94 min, and the total time from call to hospital was 68.50 ± 22.29 min. The total time from call to hospital was significantly correlated with call-to-flight time (r = 0.761, P < 0.001). Of the 222 participants, 5 (2.25%) were transported for more than 120 min, and 35 (15.8%) were transported for more than 90 min. Conclusion: This study provided a detailed insight into HEMS in the area of the Croatian Adriatic islands. The average time from the call to the helicopter taking off was 19.10 min. An increase in dispatching time has a significant impact on the prolongation of the total time for the hospital admission. Shortening the response time is critical to reducing hospital arrival time.

Keywords: air transport; acute coronary syndrome; helicopter emergency medical service (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/7/5422/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/7/5422/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:7:p:5422-:d:1117209

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().