Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. The increasing burdens of trauma and time sensitive non-communicable disease in Addis Ababa necessitate a robust emergency medical care system. The objectives of this study were to assess the proportion of patients who used emergency medical services EMS and to quantitatively and qualitatively assess barriers to EMS utilization in Addis Ababa.
A cross-sectional quantitative and qualitative study was conducted on patients who visited five selected public hospitals in Addis Ababa with specific emergency conditions.
Data were collected by trained nurses using a standardized questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression was done on cleaned and coded quantitative data using SPSS version Thematic analysis was performed on the qualitative data. Ethical approval was obtained prior to the study. A total of participants completed the survey with a non-response rate of 5.
Only 87 EMS utilization in Addis Ababa is relatively low and emergency patients are instead being transported by taxi or private car. Perceived longer ambulance waiting time and language barriers may have contributed for low utilization. Emergency medical services EMS systems are reported to be effective public health intervention to reduce mortality related to injuries and acute medical illnesses [ 1 ].
According to the world health organization, the majority of trauma related deaths occur in the pre-hospital setting. Ethiopia has amongst the highest road fatality rates in Africa with 68 fatalities per 10, vehicles per year. The high burden of trauma and acute illnesses, coupled with the increasing elderly population in Addis Ababa, demands improved access to an EMS system. In-hospital and pre-hospital emergency care have experienced dramatic development in Addis Ababa over the past decade.
