The Barbados Emergency Ambulance Service: High Frequency of Nontransported Calls

Table 1

Distribution of calls by category, type, and station; the Barbados Emergency Ambulance Service (2005).

Call category	Call type	Calls satellite station	Calls main station	Total calls	% of category	% of total
Trauma	Traffic/transportation accidents	121	650	771	42.2%	8.7%
	Falls	33	280	313	17.1%	3.5%
	Traumatic injuries (specific)	25	203	228	12.5%	2.6%
	Haemorrhage/lacerations	12	209	221	12.1%	2.5%
	Assault/sexual assault	19	160	179	9.8%	2.0%
	Stab/gunshot/penetration trauma	3	81	84	4.6%	0.9%
	Animal bites/attacks	0	3	3	0.2%	0.0%
	Burns (scalds)/explosions	2	10	12	0.7%	0.1%
	Drowning (near)/diving/scuba accident	3	8	11	0.6%	0.1%
	Eye problems/injuries	2	2	4	0.2%	0.0%
	Total trauma	220	1606	1826	100.0%	20.6%
Medical	Sick person (specific diagnosis)	246	1510	1756	36.5%	19.8%
	Breathing problems	99	759	858	17.8%	9.7%
	Abdominal pain/problems	80	431	511	10.6%	5.8%
	Diabetic problems	39	321	360	7.5%	4.1%
	Chest pain (nontraumatic)	54	277	331	6.9%	3.7%
	Convulsions/seizures	42	279	321	6.7%	3.6%
	Unconscious/fainting (near)	26	225	251	13.7%	2.8%
	Stroke (CVA)	17	135	152	3.2%	1.7%
	Cardiac or respiratory arrest/death	12	109	121	2.5%	1.4%
	Heart problems/A.I.C.D	4	74	78	1.6%	0.9%
	Headache	9	64	73	1.5%	0.8%
	Total medical	628	4184	4812	100.0%	54.2%
Environmental	Allergies/envenomations (stings, bites)	4	52	56	87.5%	0.6%
	Carbon monoxide/inhalation/hazmat		5	5	7.8%	0.1%
	Electrocution/lightning	1	2	3	4.7%	0.0%
	Total environmental	5	59	64	100.0%	0.7%
Pregnancy	Pregnancy/childbirth/miscarriage	56	247	303	100.0%	3.4%
	Total pregnancy	56	247	303	100.0%	3.4%
Psychiatric	Overdose/poisoning (ingestion)	10	45	55	57.9%	0.6%
	Psychiatric/abnormal behaviour/suicide attempt	2	38	40	42.1%	0.5%
	Total psychiatric	12	83	95	100.0%	1.1%
Miscellaneous	Back Pain (nontraumatic)	6	76	82	89.1%	0.9%
	Unknown problem (man down)	2	3	5	5.4%	0.1%
	Choking	1	2	3	3.3%	0.0%
	Inaccessible incident/other entrapment (nonvehicle)		1	1	1.1%	0.0%
	Transfer/interfacility/palliative care		1	1	1.1%	0.0%
	Total miscellaneous	9	83	92	100.0%	1.0%
Nontransported	Cancelled	107	563	670	39.8%	7.5%
	Not required	48	282	330	19.6%	3.7%
	Refused service	39	263	302	17.9%	3.4%
	Left by other means	28	241	269	16.0%	3.0%
	Not found	7	105	112	6.7%	1.3%
	Total nontransported	229	1454	1683	100.0%	19.0%
Totals	All calls	1159	7716	8875		100.0%

Call types are not in the order in which they appear on the data intake instrument [7].