Alerts of the Berlin Emergency Medical Service to Homeless Frequent Users

Background Homeless people are a particularly vulnerable population. Homelessness poses additional risks, which may influence health. Many homeless people repeatedly seek help in emergency rooms. Characteristically, a combination of addiction and psychological health issues can be seen in numerous cases. Methods This paper analyses the occurrence and characteristics of homeless Frequent Users of EMS, as well as their local distribution. For the purpose of this study, control centre data of a one year time period were collected and analysed. Results Throughout a time period of 12 month, 131 homeless patients were identified as High Frequent Users (7-10 uses/year) and Super Frequent Users (>= 11 uses/year), while the number of Super Frequent Users was prevalent. Alltogether, this population generated 2021 EMS deployments. The average age of these patients was 45,6 years and 81% were male. Emergency calls resulted prevalently in keywords such as "Intoxication" or "Psychiatric Emergency". EMS was repeatedly deployed at "Hotspots" in particular social environments. Conclusion According to numbers, EMS deployment handling homeless Frequent Users is quite significant, considering the range of services which primarily offer medical assistance to the homeless. This suggests, that such services do not reach their target population adequately. A connection between outreach social work and EMS could help reduce the number of EMS deployments, in particular in "Hotspots", as it has already been tested outside of Germany.