A Comparative Study of Prehospital Emergency Services Over the Urban and Road Areas in Hamedan Province

Background: Prehospital emergency care services are one of the vital health services in many countries that provide first and immediate medical care to the patients and injured people at the scene and during transfer to healthcare centers. This study was conducted to investigate and compare the use of prehospital emergency services in urban and road emergency bases of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences. Materials and Methods: In a descriptive-analytic study, all missions (ambulance requests) conducted at urban and road emergency bases were studied and compared over three years. The study tool was a checklist compiled of questions from PCR (Patient Care Report). PCR contains written information about the patient's demographic characteristics, mission time, mission address, mission reasons, emergency base and mission code (ambulance identification code), and so on. Finally, the collected data were analyzed using descriptive (mean and variance) and inferential statistics (t test and Chi-square).  Results: The results of the study indicated that every year, urban bases missions increased about 600 and rural bases missions about 450. Road traffic incidents, falls, cardiac emergencies and poisoning were the most common causes for ambulance call at urban and road emergency bases. In addition, urban and road bases missions were significantly different with regard to the cause of missions in all cases (except heat stroke) (P<0.01).  Conclusion: Understanding the number and pattern of prehospital emergency services in urban and rural areas plays a significant role in the proper planning of prehospital emergency care. The study showed that the need for emergency prehospital emergency services is increasing and policymakers should be considered this issue.