A Descriptive Study on Sabah Medevac service in 2018

Abstract

Introduction: Medevac is an air medical transport service. The objective of this study is to describe the pattern of Sabah Medevac service in 2018.

Methods: This is retrospective study done from 1^stJanuary 2018 until 31^stJanuary 2018. Data were extracted from standardized Sabah Medevac service data registry. Descriptive analysis was performed using SPSS V22.

Results: There were 290 requests of t Medevac service mostly from Hospital Sandakan (n=117,41) and Hospital Tawau (n=93, 32%). The range of age were from day 2 of life to 91 years old with mean age of 36.56 ±25.29. Adult age group (n=171,59%) recorded the highest requests, followed by pediatric age (n=55,19%), geriatric (n=36,12%) and neonates (n=28,10%). The top 5 disciplines who requested the service were Neurosurgical (n=71,24%), Surgical (n=42,14%), Cardiology (n=37,13%), Hematology (n=22,8%) and Medical (n=15,5%). There were 154 (53%) emergency requests transfer and 136 (47%) request for non-urgent interhospital transfer. Neurosurgical (n=44) and cardiology (n=30) has the highest request for emergency transfer where as for non-urgent request, neurosurgical (n=27) and surgical (n=22) has the highest requests. Out of 290, 67 requests were cancelled due to mainly bad weather (n=48, 72%), and patients were critical (n=10, 15%). There were 223 patients transferred. Out of 223, 17 (8%) of the patient died after the transfer and 206 (92%) were alive.

Discussion: There is a need of neurosurgical, cardiology and cardiothoracic service in east Sabah to reduce the rate of transfer as most of the emergency transfer requested were from these disciplines.

Conclusion: There is a need to expand the Medevac service especially in Borneo mainly due to unique geographical feature, as one of the strategies to improve Malaysia healthcare system.