Background and Goal of Study:Different organization schemes and functioning of the emergency medical services (EMS) within the Croatian healthcare system prompted us to to investigate the functioning of this component of the medical system in the European Union.
Materials and Methods:Committee for International Cooperation of the Croatian Medical Chamber conducted a comprehensive survey among 16 European Union (EU) member states. The questions were answered by representatives of the national medical associations/chambers of EU countries as listed: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech, Republic, Denmark Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden. The concept of the questionnaire was based on the composition of emergency care teams, organization of the emergency medical service in local communities, the implementation models of emergency aid at primary and secondary levels, triage scales as well as patient participation in the service process.
Results and Discussion:Organization of EMS among EU member states differs considerably Out-ofhospital acute medical care in the majority of countries is provided by a medical doctor and a registered nurse in an emergency ambulance car. Most of the surveyed countries (80%) have organized Integrated Emergency Hospital Units (IEHM). Patients are triaged by registered nurses in the 45% of countries, and afterwards in 73% of surveyed countries the patients are treated by residents and specialists of internal medicine, anesthesiology and surgery. General practitioners are not equally involved in the treatment of emergency patients: in 26% of countries they are not obliged to participate in the management of emergency patients, in the rest the mechanisms vary considerably. Nearly 80 % of countries reported misuse of IEHM for the purpose of avoiding general practitioners, but only 5 countries have measures for controling this trend.
Conclusion(s):Implementation models of emergency medical services are very divergent between surveyed countries, and mostly not synchronized even at national levels.

16 / Comparison of Emergency Medical Services among European Union member states: A Healthcare Professionals Associations Survey