Use of pre-hospital emergency medical services in urban and rural municipalities over a 10 year period: an observational study based on routinely collected dispatch data.

Differences between cities and other areas suggest that the planning of EMS should be targeted to regional characteristics. A substantial increase in emergency rates was observed across all areas of Bavaria, but did not impact transport rates or temporal distributions. Further research is needed to better understand the urgency of emergency events and reasons behind increasing EMS utilization.