Can I have an ambulance, doctor?

Area of Science:

• Geriatric Medicine
• Rehabilitation Services
• Healthcare Logistics

Background:

• Ambulance services are crucial for patient access to outpatient physiotherapy.
• Elderly patients (over 65) constitute a significant proportion of physiotherapy attendees.
• Extended travel and waiting times are common issues in accessing these services.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the travel and waiting times associated with ambulance transport to an urban outpatient physiotherapy center.
• To identify factors influencing travel time, such as patient age and appointment scheduling.
• To evaluate the impact of transport arrangement modifications on patient travel burden.

Main Methods:

• A study was conducted on patients utilizing ambulance services for outpatient physiotherapy.
• Data collection involved surveys to record patient demographics, visit frequency, travel times, and waiting durations.
• A follow-up survey assessed changes after implementing revised transport arrangements.

Main Results:

• Over 50% of patients were over 65 years old.
• Approximately 25% of patients attended physiotherapy at least three times weekly.
• The average total travel and waiting time was approximately 2.5 hours per patient.
• A correlation between home-to-center distance and travel time was observed for morning appointments.

Conclusions:

• Ambulance transport for outpatient physiotherapy, even under optimal conditions, imposes a substantial time burden on patients.
• The process contributes to patient fatigue and anxiety, potentially affecting the overall therapeutic benefit.
• Improvements in transport logistics yielded only modest reductions in overall patient time commitment.