Completeness in the recording of vital signs in ambulances increases over time

Introduction: In 2006, the North Denmark Region implemented the electronic prehospital patient medical record (PPR), amPHI, in the region’s prehospital emergency medical service. In 2015, a new nationwide version was implemented. Our aim was to investigate the completeness and correctness of registrations of vital sign data in the PPR after the initial introduction and after the implementation of the new PPR version. Methods: This was a descriptive registry-based study including patients to whom an ambulance was dispatched after an emergency call in the North Denmark Region in the periods 2007-2014 and 2016-2017. We examined vital sign data defined as blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), blood oxygen saturation (SpO₂), respiratory rate (RR), Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score and numeric rating scale (NRS) for pain. We defined incorrect vital sign values according to clinical plausibility. We used a trend analysis and Pearson’s χ². Results: We included 253,169 PPRs. The proportion of PPR with registration of vital signs from 2007-2014 compared with 2016-2017 was BP: 73-86%, 81-82%; HR: 76-88%, 82-83%; SpO₂: 72-85%, 82-83%; RR: 34-82%, 77-79%; GCS score: 54-92%, 81-84%; NRS for pain: 0-16%, 24-26%. The increase from 2007-2014 and 2016-2017 was significant as were the differences between 2014 and 2016. We found few defined outliers (0.5%). Conclusions: The completeness of registration increased gradually but decreased slightly after implementation of the new version. A high completeness combined with few implausible outliers and concordance indicate correctness of the vital sign registrations.