Implications of interhospital patient transfers for emergency medical services transportation systems in the Netherlands: a retrospective study.

Objectives: Interhospital patient transfers have become routine. Known drivers are access to specialty care and non-clinical reasons, such as limited capacity. While emergency medical services (EMS) providers act as main patient transfer operators, the impact of interhospital transfers on EMS service demand and fleet management remains understudied.

Tracing frequent users of regional care services using emergency medical services data: a networked approach.

Objectives: This study shows how a networked approach relying on 'real-world' emergency medical services (EMS) records might contribute to tracing frequent users of care services on a regional scale. Their tracing is considered of importance for policy-makers and clinicians, since they represent a considerable workload and use of scarce resources. While existing approaches for data collection on frequent users tend to limit scope to individual or associated care providers, the proposed approach exploits the role of EMS as the network's 'ferryman' overseeing and recording patient calls made to an entire network of care providers.