Does temporary location of ambulances (“fluid deployment”) affect response times and patient outcome?

Table 6 Outcome of missions between two groups of ambulances (PS = permanent, TS = temporary) 2012–2013

		PS	TS
		Number (percentage)	Number (percentage)
Results	Transfer to hospital	35,645 (44.6 %)	704 (44.8 %)
	Definitive treatment at scene	28,944 (36.2 %)	550 (35.1 %)
	Transfer with private vehicles/patient refusal/recovery	8217 (10.3 %)	176 (11.2 %)
	Dead before ambulance arrival	1884 (2.3 %)	25 (1.5 %)
	Died under treatment at scene	12	0
	Died during ambulance transport	15	0
	Total number of deaths and mortality rate	1911 (2.4 %)	25 (1.5 %)
	Total number of deaths and mortality rate	P = 0.04
	Cancelation, wrong address, no injuries	5253 (6.6 %)	116 (7.4 %)
	Sum	79,970 (100 %)	1571 (100 %)

Approximately 45 % of patients in each group of ambulances were transferred to the hospital. The remaining (53.1 %) were patients who received definitive care at scene (36 %, the same in both groups), transported by private means or refused to be transported to the hospitals (10.5 %, the same in both groups), those in whom EMS crews did not find any injuries or they could not be found due to wrong addresses (6.6 %, the same in both groups). Mortality rate for patients transported by TS ambulances was 1.5 % compared to the rate reported for the PS (2.3 %) (P = 0.04). These rates are being calculated after elimination of cancelations, wrong addresses, and no-injury cases. The logistic regression showed that the mortality odds of PS vs. TS increased by 52 % (OR = 1.52, P = 0.04)

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