Emergency Medical Services

Excerpt

Emergency care, which may be delivered in crisis situations with poor planning and ineffective use of resources, may be inefficient. In many countries, few resources are set aside for possible emergencies, and when situations that demand emergency care arise, they precipitate hurried and costly resource deployment. Efforts to improve emergency care, however, do not necessarily increase costs. This chapter shows that improved organization and planning for emergency care can be done at a reasonable cost and lead to more appropriate use of resources, improved care, and better outcomes (White, Williams, and Greenberg 1996). This chapter does not address nonacute conditions, even though emergency care is often the only recourse for people with nonemergency conditions because of the failure of these other components of the system (see figure 68.1).