Table 1 Comparisons of patients’ profile, chief complaint, allocated resources and satisfaction among callers handled by autonomous decision protocol (ADP) (N = 358)

Patient’s gendern(%)

- Women

- Men

- Not collected

110 (50.7%)

102 (47.0%)

5 (2.3%)

67 (47.5%)

71 (50.4%)

3 (2.1%)

0.83

Age mean (Standard Deviation)

34.7 (25.2)

36.3 (30.1)

0.59

Location n (%)

- Home

- Other

124 (57.4%)

93 (42.9%)

78 (55.3%)

63 (44.7%)

0.74

Chief complaint n (%)-

- limb injury

- Head injury

- Epistaxis

- Anxiety

- Acute diarrhea

- Low back pain

160 (73.7%)

39 (18.0%)

11 (5.1%)

4 (1.8%)

1 (0.5%)

2 (0.9%)

96 (68.1%)

33 (23.4%)

6 (4.3%)

3 (2.13%)

0 (0.00%)

3 (2.1%)

0.65

Ambulance sent (yes) n (%)

63 (29.0%)

41 (29.1%)

0.99

Responses to telephone surveys

Caller n (%)

- Relative

- Patient

- Bystander

- Health professional

78 (35.9%)

72 (33.2%)

62 (28.6%)

5 (2.3%)

Type of advice n (%)-

- By phone

- By SMS

- By phone & SMS

- Ambulance sent

86 (39.8%)

7 (3.2%)

39 (18.1%)

84 (38.9%)

Need for second opinion n (%)-

- No

- Yes at Emergency Department

- Yes visit to GP* or other

205 (95.8%)

6 (2.8%)

3 (1.4%)

Call back EMS**– yes n (%)

11 (5.2%)

Call back for worsening of symptoms– yes n (%)

3 (1.4%)

The response provided by EMS corresponded to the need n (%)

193 (90.2%)

Satisfaction mean (Standard Deviation)

8.7 (1.9)