ABSTRACT Objectives Determine counts, characteristics and outcomes following transport by the Royal Flying Doctor Service Western Operations (RFDSWO) to Perth. Study Design Retrospective cohort study of the RFDSWO aeromedical patient dataset linked to administrative datasets. Participants Suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients aged ≥ 25 years transported from rural Western Australia to Perth between 2001 and 2017. Main Outcome Measures Basic counts and proportions. Poisson regression was used to determine absolute change in number of transports and relative risk (RR) of receiving diagnostic coronary angiography; logistic regression to model odds ratio (OR) of death between transport and end of hospital care. Results RFDSWO carried out 11 390 transports for suspected ACS between 2001 and 2017, with the absolute number of annual transports increasing by 6.0%. After excluding 164 transports without linked records, the remaining 11 226 consisted of patients with a mean age of 60.3 years and 70.8% male. Most (99.1%) were hospitalised and 1.8% died. Among those hospitalised, 84.5% received diagnostic coronary angiography and 74.5% were discharged with a diagnosis of ACS. Females (RR = 0.97; CI = 0.95–0.99), higher comorbidity scores, and those from the Pilbara/Midwest/Wheatbelt regions (compared to South West) were less likely to receive diagnostic coronary angiography. Older patients (OR = 1.07; CI = 1.06–1.11), earlier transport years, higher comorbidity scores, those with priority 1 transport or requiring medical escort, and those from the Kimberley (compared to South West) were more likely to die. Conclusions Findings suggest a high suspicion of coronary artery pathology among transported patients. Patient‐level and regional differences in outcomes warrant further investigation with more granular data.
Ming et al. (Tue,) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: