Increasing the efficiency of emergency medical services by using criteria based dispatch

Area of Science:

• Emergency medicine
• Public health systems
• Healthcare management

Background:

• Emergency medical services (EMS) systems aim for efficient resource allocation.
• Criteria-based dispatch (CBD) is a method to optimize EMS response protocols.
• Evaluating the impact of CBD on EMS efficiency is crucial for system improvement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if criteria-based dispatch (CBD) improved the efficiency of the emergency medical services (EMS) system.
• To assess the impact of CBD on the utilization of basic life support (BLS) and advanced life support (ALS) resources.

Main Methods:

• A before-and-after study design was employed.
• Data from medical reports between January 1986 and June 1992 were analyzed.
• The study setting was King County, Washington (excluding Seattle), focusing on 911 medical emergency calls.

Main Results:

• A significant decrease in ALS responses for conditions not requiring ALS intervention was observed (e.g., febrile seizures: 41% to 21%; cerebrovascular accidents: 41% to 28%).
• Requests for ALS dispatch by BLS units decreased from 4.7% to 3.8%.
• No increase in the time from call receipt to dispatch was noted.

Conclusions:

• Criteria-based dispatch (CBD) effectively enhanced EMS system efficiency.
• CBD reduced ALS responses for non-ALS-requiring incidents and decreased BLS-initiated ALS requests.
• The implementation of CBD maintained consistent call-to-dispatch times, optimizing EMS operations.