LAUSR

Introduction: Outside of key conditions such as cardiac arrest and trauma, little is known about the epidemiology of mortality of all transported EMS patients. The objective of this study is to describe characteristics of EMS patients who after transport die in a health care facility. Methods: EMS transport events over one year (April, 2015-16) from a BLS/ALS system serving an urban/rural population of approximately 2 million were linked with in-hospital datasets to determine proportion of all-cause in-hospital mortality by Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS) determinant (911 call triage system), age in years (>=18 yrs. - adult, Results: A total of 239,534 EMS events resulted in 159,507 patient transports; 141,114 were included for analysis after duplicate removal (89.1% linkage), with 127,867 reporting final healthcare system outcome. There were 4,269 who died (3.3%; 95%CI 3.2%, 3.4%). The proportion of mortality by MPDS determinant was, from most to least critical 911 call, Echo (7.3%), Delta (37.2%), Charlie (31.3%), Bravo (5.8%), Alpha (18.3%), and Omega (0.3%). For adults the mean age of survivors was less than non-survivors (57.7 vs. 75.8; p Conclusion: Significant all-cause in-hospital mortality differences were found between event, patient, and clinical characteristics. These data provide foundational and hypothesis generating knowledge regarding mortality in transported EMS patients that can be used to guide research and training. Future research should further explore the characteristics of those that access health care through the EMS system.