Article Text
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Abstract
Objective To examine the current knowledge and possibly identify gaps in the knowledge base for cost–benefit analysis and safety concerning community paramedicine in rural areas.
Design Scoping review.
Data sources MEDLINE via PubMed, CINAHL, Cochrane and Embase up to December 2020.
Study selection All English studies involving community paramedicine in rural areas, which include cost–benefit analysis or safety evaluation.
Data extraction This scoping review follows the methodology developed by Arksey and O’Malley and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews. We systematically searched for all types of studies in the databases and the reference lists of key studies to identify studies for inclusion. The selection process was in two steps. First, two reviewers independently screened 2309 identified articles for title and abstracts and second performed a full-text review of 24 eligible studies for inclusion.
Results Three articles met the inclusion criteria concerning cost–benefit analysis, two from Canada and one from USA. No articles met the inclusion criteria for safety evaluation.
Conclusion There are knowledge gaps concerning safety evaluation of community paramedicine in rural areas. Three articles were included in this scoping review concerning cost–benefit analysis, two of them showing positive cost-effectiveness with community paramedicine in rural areas.
- health economics
- health services administration & management
- health & safety
- health economics
- public health
Data availability statement
Data are available on reasonable request.
This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
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- health economics
- health services administration & management
- health & safety
- health economics
- public health
Data availability statement
Data are available on reasonable request.
Supplementary materials
Supplementary Data
This web only file has been produced by the BMJ Publishing Group from an electronic file supplied by the author(s) and has not been edited for content.
Footnotes
Twitter @uleodd
Contributors HSH conceived the idea behind and is guarantor for this study. OEE, ML and HSH jointly developed the research questions. ML conducted the search. ML constructed the search map in the supplemental file. OEE and OU screened the records and full-text articles. OEE and OU outlined and wrote the article. All authors further revised the paper and approved the final text.
Funding OEE has received funding from Nord-Trøndelag Hospital Trust (reference 2019/1311 - 36027/2019) to conduct this scoping review.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.