Abstract
BACKGROUND: The burden of emergency medical conditions is borne mostly by poorer nations, with a 6 % increase in deaths of adults and children due to emergency conditions between 1990 and 2015. Emergency medical service is crucial to improve outcomes of those injuries and other time-sensitive illnesses. However, access to emergency medical services in Hawassa City is still limited and its' utilization is influenced by different factors. METHODS: A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 422 randomly selected clients who visited the emergency service in public hospitals of Hawassa City. A structured interviewer-administered questionnaire adapted by reviewing previous literature was used. The collected data by using the Kobo toolbox was exported into a statical package for social science software for analysis. Descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation were used. A binary logistic regression model at a 95 % confidence interval was used to declare an association between dependent and independent variables using the odds ratio. RESULTS: All 422 participants completed the interview with a response rate of 100 %. The mean age of the study participants was 33.73 years with a 14.67 standard deviation. One quarter (24.9 % (95 % CI: 21.1-29.4)) of the study participants have utilized emergency medical services. Urban residence (AOR = 3.48, 95 % CI: 1.69-7.16), ever utilized ambulance service (AOR = 2.37, 95%CI: 1.21-4.67), having Red Cross Association ambulance number (AOR = 2.64, 95%CI: 1.20-5.83) and awareness on presence of free government ambulance (AOR = 3.74, 95%CI: 1.46-9.59) were the predictors of the outcome variable. CONCLUSION: utilization of emergency medical services in the study area was relatively low when compared with other studies. urban residence, ever utilization of ambulance service, awareness of the presence of free government ambulances, and having a Red Cross Association ambulance number were predictors of utilization of emergency medical service.