09/22/2026
Utilisation of an emergency medical services pathway into a virtual emergency department and the impact on non-transports and patient safety
🚑 Could virtual emergency departments help reduce unnecessary ambulance conveyance?
This large Australian study examined almost 915,000 emergency medical service presentations, including more than 30,000 patients referred by paramedics to a Virtual Emergency Department (VVED) for video-enabled clinical assessment.
The results are striking:
🔹 74% of patients referred to VVED were not transported to hospital
🔹 Overall ambulance case time was around 23 minutes shorter
🔹 After adjustment, VVED referral was associated with 16-fold higher odds of non-transport
🔹 Importantly, 24-hour ambulance reattendance did not increase
🔹 Patient experience was positive, although only 8.9% responded to the survey.
For me, the interesting question is what this could mean for increasingly pressured emergency and ambulance systems.
Virtual EDs aren't simply about moving the consultation online. Used in the right patients, they could provide another route to senior clinical decision-making without automatically requiring an ED attendance.
The next questions are around longer-term outcomes, cost-effectiveness and whether these pathways can safely extend to higher-acuity patients.
Could virtual emergency medicine become an increasingly important part of managing demand before patients ever reach the ED?
https://emj.bmj.com/content/43/10/619?utm_campaign=Usage&utm_content=1789995302&utm_id=BMJ176&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook
