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Emergency medical service rescue times in Riyadh
1College of Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. asghamdi@ksu.edu.sa
Accident; Analysis and Prevention
|June 18, 2002
Summary
Emergency medical service (EMS) response times in Riyadh require improvement for better outcomes. Analyzing ambulance rescue times, including response and scene times, highlights areas for increased efficiency to save more lives.
Area of Science:
- Emergency medicine
- Public health
- Health services research
Background:
- The Saudi Red Crescent Society (SRCS) manages emergency medical services (EMS) across Saudi Arabia.
- EMS operations involve approximately 165 ambulance stations, each equipped with two ambulances.
- Data collection focuses on EMS requests and ambulance arrival times at accident scenes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate ambulance rescue time, encompassing response time, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
- To specifically analyze EMS response times for road traffic accidents.
- To compare Riyadh's EMS response times with those in other countries.
Main Methods:
- A sample of 874 emergency calls from 1999 was analyzed.
- Ambulance rescue time was broken down into response time, on-scene time, and transport time.
- Statistical analysis was performed on collected data, including average speeds and times.
Main Results:
- Average total ambulance rescue time in Riyadh was 35.84 minutes.
- Average response time to emergency scenes was 10.23 minutes.
- Average ambulance speed to accident scenes was approximately 55.05 km/h.
Conclusions:
- There is significant potential to enhance EMS rescue times in Riyadh.
- Improving the efficiency of ambulance teams can lead to improved patient outcomes and save lives.
- A novel test statistic was developed for comparing EMS response times globally.