Duration of mission time in prehospital emergency medicine: effects of emergency severity and physicians level of education.

Background: Prehospital emergency care is provided in many European countries by specialised emergency physicians. However, little is known about the impact of experience and educational level of emergency physicians on providing prehospital care.

Methods: During a 6-month period all deployments of an emergency physician-staffed ambulance in a metropolitan area were studied according to possible predictors of prehospital mission times.