EMS response time for cardiac arrest patients in a rural area of Austria

Abstract

Purpose: Emergency Medical Service (EMS) response times have been set to be less than 15 min in Lower Austria (19.186.26 km2, 1.605.122 inhabitants). This analysis presents the actual time intervals for cardiac arrest. Methods: Emergency medical dispatcher (EMD) followed a standardized protocol leading to an operation code. All operation codes suspecting a cardiac arrest were collected from January 2009 to February 2010 and time stamps retrospectively analysed. Results: 2486 calls were analysed. In 2237 (90%) cases all time stamps were available.Tabled 1All6 am–10 pm10 pm–6 amN22371822(81)415(19)Response time12:08(8:50; 16:17)11:52(8:39; 15:54)12:52(9:39; 17:51)EMD On hold0:16(0:11; 0:39)0:15(0:11; 0:39)0:16(0:12; 0:35) Positioning0:51(0:39; 1:14)0:51(0:38; 1:13)0:54(0:41; 1:17) Medical questioning0:58(0:40; 1:23)0:59(0:41; 1:24)0:57(0:39; 1:21) Dispatch0:52(0:38; 1:11)0:52(0:38; 1:13)0:50(0:38; 1:06)EMS Time to departure of 1st EMS car2:15(1:31; 3:20)2:06(1:25; 3:03)3:17(2:05; 4:17) Travel time of 1st EMS car to scene6:01(3:28; 9:37)5:57(3:28; 9:35)6:15(3:28; 9:52)Data are presented as n and percentages or as median with 25th and 75th quartile Open table in a new tab Conclusions: A median response time of 12:08 min seems satisfactorily for a rural area. However reducing dispatch time and time to EMS departure could shorten response time.