Loss of life years due to unavailable helicopter emergency medical service: a single base study from a rural area of Norway.

Despite the potential benefits of physician-staffed Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS), many dispatches to primary HEMS missions in Norway are cancelled before patient encounter. Information is sparse regarding the health consequences when medically indicated HEMS missions are cancelled and the patients are treated by a GP and ambulance staff only. We aimed to estimate the potential loss of life years for patients in these situations.

Doctors are to blame for perceived medical adverse events. A cross sectional population study. The Tromsø Study.

Background: Most current knowledge of the incidence of medical adverse events (AEs) comes from studies carried out in hospital settings. Little is known about AEs occurring outside hospitals, in spite the fact that most of contacts between patients and health care take place in primary care. Small sample population studies report that 4-49% of the general public have experienced AEs related to their own or family members´ care.

Are expert panel judgments of medical benefits reliable? An evaluation of emergency medical service programs.

Objective: We have used multidisciplinary expert panels to assess the health benefits from two different emergency medical service programs in Norway. This gave the opportunity to study the reliability of the expert panel method.

Methods: Two panels assessed case reports for 18 children, and two other panels assessed case reports for 64 adult patients.