Time Indices of Emergency Medical Services

Abstract

Background: Almost 25 of the world population suffer from early death due to preventable events. Trauma and sudden cardiac death are known as common causes of death. The arrival time to help the patient is known as a very important factor in enhancing survival and reducing side effects. Objectives: The aim of the present study was to identify the factors relating to the efficacy of prehospital emergency service (time-related performance). In addition, it was intended to describe time indices of prehospital services among patients who had internal medical and trauma related problems. Methods: In the present cross-sectional study, all the calls to the emergency medical service (EMS) were monitored. The reasons of these calls were internal medical problems and trauma (March 2009 to March 2013). The frequency of calls were derived from the information bank of EMS in Isfahan, Iran. Demographic features, type of events, time indices of EMS and the outcomes of registered patients were collected and the data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics. Descriptive statistics included frequency, percentage, mean, median, and standard deviation and inferential statistics included t-test, ANOVA, multiple regression and chi-square test. Results: From a total of 299956 cases who had sought help, 61.9 were men. Also, 48.5 of the cases had internal medical and 51.5 had traumatic injuries. In 61.5 of the cases, the injured persons were transferred to the hospital and 3.2 of the cases resulted in death. The men had a morality rate of 1.6 more than women (P < 0.001). Response times were significantly higher than the standard of 8 minutes (P < 0.001). In 50.6 of the cases, the mean response time was less than 8 minutes. Conclusions: Considering the increasing trend of traumatic events, especially in active groups of society (age groups of less than 45), equipping and updating ambulances and providing the EMS personnel with better training can help the injured people in reducing aftermath consequences. On the other hand, increasing neurologic problems in these age groups is an alarm for health managers and health workers, so that they can improve public health through revising health guidelines. Increase in the response time in prehospital emergency missions is also an alarm for the managers who must revise the methods of conducting emergency missions.