Emergency Services Utilization in Jakarta (Indonesia): A Cross-Sectional Study of Patients Attending Hospital Emergency Departments

Background: Pre-hospital and emergency services in Indonesia are still developing. Despite recent improvements in the Indonesian healthcare system, issues with the provision of pre-hospital and emergency services persist. The demand for pre-hospital and emergency services has not been the subject of previous research and, therefore, has not been fully understood. Our research explored the characteristics of patients attending hospital emergency departments in Jakarta, Indonesia. Methods The study used a cross-sectional survey design involving five general hospitals (four government-funded and one private). The patients’ demographic profile, medical conditions, time to treatment based on different medical conditions, and methods of transport to reach the hospitals were analysed using descriptive statistics. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare groups and the result was considered significant if the p-value < 0.05. Results A total of 1,964 patients was surveyed. The median age of patients was 44 years with an interquartile range (IQR) of 26 to 58 years. IQR describes the range of the middle 50% of values in the data when it is ordered from lowest to highest. Life-threatening conditions such as trauma and cardiovascular diseases were found in 8.6% and 6.6% of patients respectively, the general medical category accounted for 63%. The majority of patients with trauma travelled to the hospital using a motorcycle or car (59.8%). Ambulance was used by 9.3% of the patients, 38% of patients were not aware of the availability of ambulances. The median travel time by ambulances to the hospital was 42 minutes (IQR: 12 to 54 minutes). The median time to treatment for patients with cardiovascular disease was 102 minutes (IQR: 66 to 300 minutes). Conclusion Investing resources in pre-hospital and emergency services in Indonesia and in particular the provision of ambulance services, would create real benefits for the population and result in a significant reduction in deaths following heart disease and stroke.