Objectives: Emergency Medical Services (EMS) has historically utilized lights and sirens (L&S) to respond to 911 incidents. L&S are used in 86% of scene responses nationally; however, time critical interventions (TCIs) occur in less than 7% of these incidents. Responses with L&S are associated with increased risk of crashes and injuries. Our objective was to determine the impact of TCI-based dispatch thresholds on L&S use, dispatch accuracy, and response times.
Methods: We performed a before-after retrospective evaluation of TCI-based dispatch methodology at a suburban EMS system. We categorized all EMS interventions as TCI or not, and we determined a TCI threshold above which we would use L&S. We then assigned response priorities to each call nature based on the proportion of TCIs within them. We compared historical results with those from the 6 months following implementation in terms of L&S use, dispatch accuracy, and response times.
Results: There were 13,879 responses in the "before" group and 14,117 in the "after" group. The rate of L&S use decreased from 56.2% in the before group to 27.6% in the after group, while TCIs were performed in 6.9% of responses in the before group and 7.6% in the after group. Accuracy increased from 48.8% to 75.1% and median response time increased by 0.1 min from 8.3 to 8.4 min.
Conclusion: Using TCI-based dispatch thresholds, we decreased L&S use and increased accuracy with minimal increased response time. Our results support the use of this methodology to determine EMS response modes.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/emp2.13232 | DOI Listing |
J Am Coll Emerg Physicians Open
August 2024
Williamson County EMS Georgetown Texas USA.
Objectives: Emergency Medical Services (EMS) has historically utilized lights and sirens (L&S) to respond to 911 incidents. L&S are used in 86% of scene responses nationally; however, time critical interventions (TCIs) occur in less than 7% of these incidents. Responses with L&S are associated with increased risk of crashes and injuries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Qual Health Care
July 2024
School of Public Health, Research Centre for Medicine and Social Development, Innovation Centre for Social Risk Governance in Health, Chongqing Medical University, No. 61 Middle University Town Road, Shapingba District, Chongqing 400016, China.
Shortening the prehospital emergency medical service (EMS) response time is crucial for saving lives and lowering mortality and disability rates in patients with sudden illnesses. Descriptive analyses of prehospital EMS response time and each component were conducted separately using ambulance trip data from the 120 Dispatch Command Centre in the main urban area of Chongqing in 2021, and then, logistic regression analyses were used to explore the influencing factors. The median prehospital EMS response time in the main urban area of Chongqing was 14.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResuscitation
August 2024
Center for Healthcare Operations Improvement and Research, University of Twente, Drienerlolaan 5, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands; Industrial Engineering and Business Information Systems, University of Twente, Drienerlolaan 5, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands. Electronic address:
Objectives: Volunteer responder systems (VRSs) aim to decrease time to defibrillation by dispatching trained volunteers to automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) victims. AEDs are often underutilized due to poor placement. This study provides a cost-effectiveness analysis of adding AEDs at strategic locations to maximize quality-adjusted life years (QALYs).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Public Health
June 2024
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
Introduction: The precise associations between temperature-related indices and mental and behavioral disorders (MBDs) have yet to be fully elucidated. Our study aims to ascertain the most effective temperature-related index and assess its immediate impact on emergency ambulance dispatches (EADs) due to MBDs in Shenzhen, China.
Methods: EADs data and meteorological data from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2020, in Shenzhen were collected.
Heliyon
April 2024
All from Microbiology Division, Public Health Laboratory Services Branch, Centre for Health Protection, Department of Health, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
Background: Standardized and validated heat inactivation procedure for Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are not available. For heat inactivation, various protocols were reported to prepare External Quality Assessment Programme (EQAP) samples without direct comparison between different durations.
Objective: To assess the heat inactivation procedures against SARS-CoV-2.
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