Background: Emergency Medical Communication Centres (EMCCs) play a crucial role in emergency care by ensuring timely responses through telephone triage. However, extended communication times can impede accessibility, patient triage, and decision-making. Identifying the factors influencing communication duration is essential for improving EMCC efficiency.

Objective: This study aims to identify temporal, human, and contextual factors associated with prolonged communication times in an EMCC where decision-making is conducted by physicians.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective observational study of all calls received at a French EMCC between March 1 and December 31, 2019. A total of 108,548 patient medical files were analyzed, excluding calls from medical personnel or hospitals. We examined the total communication time (from call initiation to decision) and the medical communication time (physician involvement). Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were used to identify factors associated with prolonged communication times.

Results: The median total communication time was 7 min [IQR 5-11], and the median medical communication time was 3 min [IQR 2-4]. Psychiatric reasons for calling (OR = 1.75) and elderly patients (OR = 1.58) were associated with longer communication times. Calls leading to medical advice (OR = 1.48) and calls during weekends or nighttime were also significant factors. Conversely, calls for trauma or from nursing homes, and those handled by emergency physicians, were associated with shorter durations.

Conclusion: Several factors influence communication times in EMCCs, including patient demographics, reason for the call, and time of day.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11727792PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13049-024-01315-wDOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

communication time
20
medical communication
16
communication times
16
communication
12
emergency medical
8
factors associated
8
associated prolonged
8
prolonged communication
8
total communication
8
medical
7

Similar Publications

: Interprofessional education of medical and pharmacy students may improve competence-based university teaching. : We developed a joint bed-side teaching to improve patient-related competencies in identifying drug-related problems in hospitalized patients at a university cardiology department. Students were randomly allocated in mixed teams of medical and pharmacy students (1:3).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Face masks can impact processing a narrative in sign language, affecting several metacognitive dimensions of understanding (i.e., perceived effort, confidence and feeling of understanding).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

With the increasing intelligence and diversification of communication interference in recent years, communication interference resource scheduling has received more attention. However, the existing interference scenario models have been developed mostly for remote high-power interference with a fixed number of jamming devices without considering power constraints. In addition, there have been fewer scenario models for short-range distributed communication interference with a variable number of jamming devices and power constraints.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

UAV selection for high-speed train communication using OTFS modulation.

Sci Rep

January 2025

Computational Learning Theory Team, RIKEN-Advanced Intelligence Project, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan.

Providing continuous wireless connectivity for high-speed trains (HSTs) is challenging due to their high speeds, making installing numerous ground base stations (BSs) along the HST route an expensive solution, particularly in rural and wilderness areas. This paper proposes using multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to deliver high data rate wireless connectivity for HSTs, taking advantage of their ability to fly, hover, and maneuver at low altitudes. However, autonomously selecting the optimal UAV by the HST is challenging.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Dissipative constraint-based multi-area power system with time-varying delays and cyber-attacks.

ISA Trans

January 2025

Department of Applied Mathematics, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore 641046, India; Department of Mathematics, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 440746, Republic of Korea. Electronic address:

This work describes the dissipative constraint-based load frequency control problem for multi-area power system under load disturbances. Particularly, a new model incorporating time-varying delays and cyber-attacks are widespread in communication networks, significantly impacting control and stability. Consequently, the state-space equations of the addressed model are formulated and analyzed under the impact of false data injection attacks, and time-varying delays.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!