Prehospital Emergency Medical Services Departure Interval: Does Patient Age Matter?

Abstract

Introduction The concept of response time with minimal interval is intimately related to the practice of emergency medicine. The factors influencing this time interval are poorly understood. Problem In a process of improvement of response time, the impact of the patient's age on ambulance departure intervals was investigated.

Method: This was a 3-year observational study. Departure intervals of ambulances, according to age of patients, were analyzed and a multivariate analysis, according to time of day and suspected medical problem, was performed.

Results: A total of 44,113 missions were included, 2,417 (5.5%) in the pediatric group. Mean departure delay for the adult group was 152.9 seconds, whereas it was 149.3 seconds for the pediatric group (P =.018).

Conclusion: A statistically significant departure interval difference between missions for children and adults was found. The difference, however, probably was not significant from a clinical point of view (four seconds). Schnegg B , Pasquier M , Carron PN , Yersin B , Dami F . Prehospital Emergency Medical Services departure interval: does patient age matter? Prehosp Disaster Med. 2016;31(6):608-613.

Keywords: DC dispatch center; EMD emergency medical dispatcher; EMS Emergency Medical Services; EMS; departure interval; pediatrics.