An analytic method for the evaluation of rural Emergency Medical Service development

An analytic method is presented for assessing the marginal impact of incremental changes in rural Emergency Medical Services (EMS) on cardiac mortality, morbidity, EMS system process and performance, and health care system utilization. The method incorporates a model of the EMS system. This model specifies five sets of interactive variables characterizing EMS system development and effectiveness. The analytic method quantifies the contribution of each of these sets of interactive variables on the outcome variables (cardiac mortality, morbidity, EMS process/performance, and health care system utilization) for three target populations: those who utilize the EMS system, all hospitalized patients with acute ischemic heart disease independent of EMS system use, and the population of all patients dying from acute ischemic heart disease on a communitywide basis. By including in the model those factors unique to rural areas, such as scarcity of fiscal and health care system resources, geographical constraints, and the skewed severity of case mix due to the clinical and socioeconomic conditions found among rural patients, the analytic method is able to quantify and help explain the impact of these factors on the EMS system and the limitations which they impose. The analytic method affords planners and administrators and rational basis for decisions regarding future rural EMS system development through its identification of those system characteristics amenable to change and worth pursuing from a health policy perspective.