EVA LUAT ION OF SELECTE D ITEMS OF EMERGENCY MEDICA L SYSTEM IN POLAND BY PRACT ITIONERS

Abstract

Introduction: The State Emergency Medical System (PRM) exists to provide assistance to every person in state of sudden threat to their health or life, operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year round. The units of the system are hospital emergency departments (SOR) and emergency medical teams, including aviation emergency medical teams. The obvious purpose of the PRM System, which is to save life of human, as any complex activity, is sometimes put to the proof. Appearing and publicised by media cases of late medical attention, calls ignored by a dispatcher or sending emergency medical teams from hospital to hospital seriously undermine the reputation of healthcare service in Poland. The aim: Evaluation of organization of the PRM System in Poland by practitioners – medical staff of Hospital Emergency Departments, ambulance personnel and medical students. Material and methods: The material included a group of 138 interviewees from 768 participants of the 11th Emergency Medicine Conference Kopernik 2018. The research tool was the author’s survey consisting of 12 thematic questions, including one open question, and the part collecting sociodemographic data. The collected empirical material was given descriptive and statistical analysis using Microsoft Excel. The results were presented by calculating the arithmetic mean, median, dominant, standard deviation, coefficient of variation and% of responses respectively. Results: In the majority of respondents’ opinion the organization of the PRM system in Poland is average. The vast majority of respondents (64%) consider the two-people “P” teams to be insufficient. Problems the most often reported by the respondents were lack/or insufficient number of trainings, underfunding of the system, large salaries disparities, shortages of staff, hampered cooperation with other services. Conclusions: The analysis of selected items of the organization of the State Emergency Medical Service in Poland in opinion of practitioners points out the need to implement organizational changes which could improve the system.