Citation

Pan ST, Lee YL, Cheng HH, Huang CW, Chu SY, Cheng LM, Chu FY, O'Donnell FT, Lin CH. J. Health Care Poor Underserved 2024; 35(3): 962-977.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2024, Johns Hopkins University Press)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

39129613

Abstract

Emergency medical retrieval services (EMRS) in remote Indigenous islands is rarely investigated. We analyzed the characteristics of patients who underwent EMRS in Lanyu, an offshore island of Taiwan, from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2021. The need for EMRS for Lanyu Indigenous residents (N=132, 3.83‰) was almost 1.5-fold and 100-fold for non-Indigenous residents (N=16, 2.64‰) and tourists (N=40, 0.04‰), respectively. The resident group had a longer hospitalization (12.0 ± 12.9 vs. 5.9 ± 11.7 days, p=.007). The tourist group had more near-drowning or decompression sickness (44.0% vs. 3.0%, p<.001) and secondary transfers (20.0% vs. 5.4%, p=.003). All the patients (N=12) that required multiple retrievals were Lanyu Indigenous residents. The Lanyu Indigenous residents, compared with the non-Indigenous residents, had fewer admissions to intensive care units (47.7% vs. 80.0%) and more in-hospital mortalities (10.6% vs. 0.0%). Multifaceted approaches should be initiated to improve the health care system in remote Indigenous islands.

Language: en

Keywords

Humans; Adult; Aged; Female; Male; Middle Aged; Adolescent; Young Adult; Taiwan; Indigenous Peoples; *Emergency Medical Services/statistics & numerical data; Health Services, Indigenous/organization & administration