Referral to another level of health care - A prehospital patient safety study

The ambulance service resources are limited and therefore care seekers with the greatest need should be given priority access to care. It is both resource- and cost effective to take care of those seeking care at the right level.

With this research project we want to describe what constitutes those referred to another level of care to further promote understanding of why they are seeking emergency medical services in the first place. The project is also examining whether the current procedures for referral of care seekers to the emergency services in the Örebro County is patient safe and adequately selects the care seekers who are not in need of emergency medical services. The project will also describe the experience of being referred to another level of care. We will also look into the nurses' experience of referring care seekers to another level of care. The experiences of referring care seekers can contribute to the understanding of nurses' work situation and be a basis for methodological development of a patient-safe pre-hospital assessment system. The care seekers experiences of being referred to another level of care can contribute to a more person-centered care and greater adherence to the advice and information provided by the ambulance service. The guidelines can be improved and if priority of medical needs can be refined we can then better understand those who do not need the emergency medical service.