Ambulance and emergency medicine care

Age group — in the statistics of emergency medical care, data is collected on persons aged 0–14 and persons aged 15 and older.

Ambulance — outpatient healthcare service for the initial diagnosis and treatment of life-threatening illness, injury or poisoning and, if necessary, for the transport of the person in need to a hospital.

Ambulance crew — a 3-member team which is competent in emergency medicine and which provides emergency care. Ambulance crews are divided into resuscitation crews, physician crews and nurse crews. Depending on the type of crew, members of an ambulance crew may include an emergency medicine physician, an anaesthesiologist or a physician who has completed advanced training in emergency medicine, an emergency medicine nurse, an intensive care nurse or a nurse who has completed advanced training in emergency medicine, and an emergency medicine technician, ambulance technician or a student who has completed a certain amount of physician/midwife/nurse course and has completed advanced training in emergency medicine.

Conservative care — a treatment without surgery; a treatment option which provides comfort care, if it’s decided to let the disease run its natural course.

County — in emergency medical care statistics the county division (divided by Classification of Administrative and Settlement Units of Estonia (EHAK) - see "Classifications and lists") shows the persons who made emergency calls and were aided by emergency medical care according to the waiting location of ambulance crews.

Emergency Department (ED) — a department at a hospital with the instruments and furnishings conforming to requirements which provides all emergency care services. Compare: other emergency room / first-aid station.

Emergency medical care — health care offered by a health care provider in the context of inevitable care and / or outside the waiting list. Emergency medical care is provided by ambulance outside of the hospital and by the Emergency Department or other emergency room in hospital.

Emergency medicine — the health care field dedicated to initial diagnosis and treatment of life-threatening diseases, injuries, intoxication, etc., aimed at preventing the death or incapacity for work of the patients.

Emergency patient — a patient who requires urgent or unavoidable care, specifically the patient is acutely, seriously ill, injured, or psychiatrically ill. An emergency patient requires emergency, urgent, unscheduled care or requires care from a safety perspective.

Emergency surgical care — a treatment option which provides emergency surgical care. Here: emergency patients who have transmitted for surgical care in 24 hours, and who are not considered as patients with scheduled operation (also patients with scheduled caesarean section). The data is coded on the basis of NOMESCO surgical procedures classification NCSP; excluding chapters T, U and X procedures.

Hospital — a health care provider which complies with the requirements related to location, construction, administrative organisation and staff, aimed at providing 24-hour care in medical specialities. As a rule, in addition to inpatient health care, hospitals also provide outpatient and day care.

Hospital admission — in ambulance statistics: hospitalization of a patient by ambulance crew; in emergency department statistics: patient transferred from emergency department to inpatient care.

Ineffective call — emergency call, during the course of which the person requiring care was not found, since he/she had left the scene of an accident, or it was a false call.

Intensive care bed in ED — in use II or III category inpatient intensive care bed located in hospital's Emergency Department.

Observation bed in ED or other emergency room / first-aid station — place in observation room, which includes equipment for monitoring patient's vital parameters.

Outpatient health care service or outpatient care — outpatient health care service, when a patient’s visit to a health care provider is confined to a few hours and accommodation overnight in an inpatient facility is not needed.

Other emergency room / first-aid station — a department/room for the admittance of emergency patients that does not have to conform to the requirements of an emergency department (including specialised emergency care, e.g. ophthalmology, psychiatry, gynaecology etc.).

Total number of calls — includes fulfilled, cancelled and ineffective emergency calls.

Unavoidable/urgent care — a healthcare service provided by a healthcare professional in a situation where delaying or failing to provide care could result in the death or permanent damage to the health of the person in need.

The aim of the collection and production of emergency care statistics is to provide an overview of the volume of work of the emergency health care providers, reasons for provision of emergency care and patients who require emergency care.

Emergency medicine statistics covers the data about the activities of 1) emergency health care providers providing ambulance service and 2) hospitals’ emergency departments (ED) and emergency rooms.

1) Ambulance statistics were collected on a quarterly basis until 2014. Data about the emergency calls, reasons for the use of ambulance services and its resources (ambulance crews, number of ambulance cars, and number of personnel) was collected with aggregated reports. All ambulance service providers submitted aggregated reports electronically to the Health Board, which forwarded the aggregated data for each calendar year to the Department of Health Statistics at the National Institute for Health Development. The data is published in absolute and relative numbers (rate per 1000 inhabitants). Related to the transition to the E-ambulance data system in 2015, technical problems occur in production of ambulance statistics.

Statistical data about ambulance personnel is available in the relevant subdivision of the section 'Health Care Personnel', while statistical data about ambulance cars and crews is available in the section 'Health Care Providers' under subject 'Health care resources and their use'.

2) Hospitals’ emergency department statistics for each calendar year are presented in the aggregated report “Hospital“, which must be submitted by all hospitals having facilities for the admission of emergency patients (including 24-hour admission). The report include information about the number of EDs and describe the arriving and leaving of patients to/from EDs or other emergency room / first-aid station. Statistical data does not include the information about planned patients admitted to hospital. The data is collected in accordance with the Health Care Services Organisation Act (HCSOA) and decree by the Minister of Social Affairs on the basis of the HCSOA. The data is published in absolute numbers.

Methodological change since 2016 in statistics of the way patients arrive to emergency department: If previously arrival types 'directed by same hospital's health care workers' and 'emergency department callbacks' were counted under value "Directed from another medical institution" then since 2016 these are included under value "Arrived in other way" (see table KE32).

In 2016, emergency medical service according to the category of triage was added to the Estonian Health Insurance Fund's service list, and therefore the number of directed patients to inpatient care and number of cured patients in emergency intensive care beds decreased (see table KE33).

Classification of Administrative and Settlement Units of Estonia (EHAK)

This classification is used upon submission of regional statistics. Regional health care statistics are submitted by 15 counties. Information about Tallinn and Tartu is submitted separately. This classification system is available on the webpage of the Statistics Estonia in the Classifications section.

Classification of hospitals

On the basis of the services they provide hospitals are divided into seven types: regional hospitals, central hospitals, general hospitals, local hospitals, special hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals and nursing care hospitals. Emergency medical care is provided by regional, central, general and selected local hospitals. Requirements for different hospital types are laid down in Decree No. 103 Requirements for Hospital Types, issued by the Minister of Social Affairs on 19 August 2004 (in Estonian). The Hospital Network Development Plan, which determines the list of public sector hospitals and their role in the healthcare system, was established by Regulation No. 105 of the Government of the Republic of Estonia of April 2, 2003.

National Institute for Health Development of Estonia, The National Health Service of Latvia, Health Information Centre, Institute of Hygiene, Lithuania. Health in the Baltic Countries. 2014. Tallinn: National Institute for Health Development; 2016. Report is available here in pdf-format

National Institute for Health Development. Tervisestatistika Eestis ja Euroopas 2007, 2009 ja 2011. Health statistics in Estonia and Europe 2007, 2009 and 2011. Tallinn: National Institute for Health Development; 2013. Publication is available here in pdf-format

National Institute for Health Development. Tervisestatistika Eestis ja Euroopas 2007. (3. trükk). Health statistics in Estonia and Europe 2007. (3rd edition). Tallinn: National Institute for Health Development; 2010. Publication is available here in pdf-format

National Institute for Health Development. Eesti tervisestatistika raamat. Estonian health statistics book 2005–2008. Tallinn: National Institute for Health Development; 2010. Publication is available here in pdf-format

Anderson E. Quality Report on the Statistics of Emergency and Reception Departments Work. Reporting period: 2018. Tallinn: National Institute for Health Development; 2019. Report is available here in pdf-format

Contact of hospitals’ emergency department statistics

Aia Simm

Department of Health Statistics

National Institute for Health Development

E-mail: Aia.Simm[at]tai.ee

Contact of ambulance statistics (data until 2014)

Health Board

E-mail: info[at]terviseamet.ee

Updated: 7.05.2026