Examining Response Time to Emergency Cases and Causes of Delay in Missions of 115 Prehospital Emergency Center in Khorramabad



Moradi B¹ ; Ansari R² ; Ansari F³
Source: Annals of Tropical Medicine and Public Health Published:2018

Abstract

Introduction: pre-hospital emergency is an important department in healthcare service system. Immediate, efficient and effective healthcare services save lives of many people and reduce the severity, length of illness and side effects. Methods: This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study on 5431 missions in five urban centers in Khorramabad in the first six months of 2016. Mission duration (dispatch time and response time interval from call receipt to ambulance arrival at the accident scene) and causes of delay in missions were analyzed. Findings: findings showed that 74.8% of missions were performed in less than 8 minutes (at the standard time). Dispatch of ambulance from areas other than nearby centers (29.2%), route crowdedness (traffic) (25%), long distance (22%), etc. were high frequency causes of delay in response to emergency cases. Conclusion: given the importance of 115 prehospital emergency care centers in reducing response time to emergency cases, the Ministry of Healthcare and Medical Emergency Department and other relevant organizations (e.g. Traffic Police) should allocate more funds to this sector and perform an accurate need assessment for required number of ambulances, emergency equipment and centers based on population density and public demand in every urban area. © 2018 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.