Health care pathways described by care-seekers following a call to the emergency medical communication center-A Swedish perspective.
<h4>Introduction</h4>A call to an emergency number is often the first course of action among care-seekers seeking emergency care. The emergency medical communication centre assesses the call and dispatches resources to meet the care-seekers' care needs. Knowledge concerning specific...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2025-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0325706 |
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| author | Jonas Wihlborg Anna Carin Wahlberg Mats Holmberg Lars Sturesson Annika Alm-Pfrunder Veronica Lindström |
| author_facet | Jonas Wihlborg Anna Carin Wahlberg Mats Holmberg Lars Sturesson Annika Alm-Pfrunder Veronica Lindström |
| author_sort | Jonas Wihlborg |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <h4>Introduction</h4>A call to an emergency number is often the first course of action among care-seekers seeking emergency care. The emergency medical communication centre assesses the call and dispatches resources to meet the care-seekers' care needs. Knowledge concerning specific healthcare pathways is sparse and does not include the care-seeker perspective. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore care-seekers' experiences of healthcare pathways following a call to the national emergency number.<h4>Methods</h4>The study was an explorative cross-sectional study using data from telephone interviews with callers to the Swedish national emergency number. Study informants (n = 141) provided descriptions of incidents (n = 156) that led up to the call, as well as their experiences following a healthcare pathway. Data analysis included mapping healthcare pathways, descriptive statistics, and gathering descriptions of care-seeker experiences.<h4>Results and conclusions</h4>This study shows the multiple healthcare pathways for care-seekers following a call to the national emergency number. The accessibility and availability of the healthcare system are found to be difficult to grasp among care-seekers. Decisions on which pathway to follow are primarily made by healthcare professionals rather than the care-seekers, which supports the notion that the system is not being designed from the care-seekers' perspective. Expressions of increased vulnerability, being unsafe and feeling lost were common among the care-seekers, regardless of which pathway was followed. The findings of this study could be used as an incentive for healthcare providers to develop a healthcare system based on the found novel knowledge of the care-seekers' perspective. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-5d07fb2860874de18c5e8ec21fe2d893 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj-art-5d07fb2860874de18c5e8ec21fe2d8932025-08-20T02:40:27ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032025-01-01206e032570610.1371/journal.pone.0325706Health care pathways described by care-seekers following a call to the emergency medical communication center-A Swedish perspective.Jonas WihlborgAnna Carin WahlbergMats HolmbergLars SturessonAnnika Alm-PfrunderVeronica Lindström<h4>Introduction</h4>A call to an emergency number is often the first course of action among care-seekers seeking emergency care. The emergency medical communication centre assesses the call and dispatches resources to meet the care-seekers' care needs. Knowledge concerning specific healthcare pathways is sparse and does not include the care-seeker perspective. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore care-seekers' experiences of healthcare pathways following a call to the national emergency number.<h4>Methods</h4>The study was an explorative cross-sectional study using data from telephone interviews with callers to the Swedish national emergency number. Study informants (n = 141) provided descriptions of incidents (n = 156) that led up to the call, as well as their experiences following a healthcare pathway. Data analysis included mapping healthcare pathways, descriptive statistics, and gathering descriptions of care-seeker experiences.<h4>Results and conclusions</h4>This study shows the multiple healthcare pathways for care-seekers following a call to the national emergency number. The accessibility and availability of the healthcare system are found to be difficult to grasp among care-seekers. Decisions on which pathway to follow are primarily made by healthcare professionals rather than the care-seekers, which supports the notion that the system is not being designed from the care-seekers' perspective. Expressions of increased vulnerability, being unsafe and feeling lost were common among the care-seekers, regardless of which pathway was followed. The findings of this study could be used as an incentive for healthcare providers to develop a healthcare system based on the found novel knowledge of the care-seekers' perspective.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0325706 |
| spellingShingle | Jonas Wihlborg Anna Carin Wahlberg Mats Holmberg Lars Sturesson Annika Alm-Pfrunder Veronica Lindström Health care pathways described by care-seekers following a call to the emergency medical communication center-A Swedish perspective. PLoS ONE |
| title | Health care pathways described by care-seekers following a call to the emergency medical communication center-A Swedish perspective. |
| title_full | Health care pathways described by care-seekers following a call to the emergency medical communication center-A Swedish perspective. |
| title_fullStr | Health care pathways described by care-seekers following a call to the emergency medical communication center-A Swedish perspective. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Health care pathways described by care-seekers following a call to the emergency medical communication center-A Swedish perspective. |
| title_short | Health care pathways described by care-seekers following a call to the emergency medical communication center-A Swedish perspective. |
| title_sort | health care pathways described by care seekers following a call to the emergency medical communication center a swedish perspective |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0325706 |
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