Improved prehospital triage for acute cardiac care: results from HART-c, a multicentre prospective study.

Background: Cardiac symptoms are one of the most prevalent reasons for emergency department visits. However, over 80% of patients with such symptoms are sent home after acute cardiovascular disease has been ruled out.

Objective: The Hollands-Midden Acute Regional Triage-cardiology (HART-c) study aimed to investigate whether a novel prehospital triage method, combining prehospital and hospital data with expert consultation, could increase the number of patients who could safely stay at home after emergency medical service (EMS) consultation.