Emergency Medical Services Responses to 9-1-1 Calls Triggered by Personal Emergency Response Systems

Area of Science:

• Emergency Medical Services
• Gerontology
• Public Health

Background:

• Elderly adults use personal emergency response systems (PERS) to live independently.
• Activation of emergency medical services (EMS) is a key part of the PERS model.
• The impact of PERS activations on EMS utilization is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine EMS responses to PERS activations over a 10-year period.
• To evaluate the appropriateness of lights and siren (L&S) responses for PERS calls.
• To analyze the factors influencing L&S transport in PERS-related incidents.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 9-1-1 calls related to PERS activations (2013-2022).
• Descriptive statistics for chief complaint, response, and transport modes.
• Logistic regression to assess the association between chief complaint and L&S transport.

Main Results:

• PERS activations constituted 2.5% of adult 9-1-1 calls.
• Lights and siren (L&S) were used in 96% of PERS responses, but L&S patient transport was rare (1.4%).
• 63% of L&S use was for calls canceled before patient contact, totaling 1,087 hours.

Conclusions:

• Many PERS responses are canceled or involve low-acuity patients.
• Dispatcher clarification of the issue increases the likelihood of L&S transport.
• EMS systems should consider reducing L&S responses for PERS calls without specific situational data.