Differences between EMS Stations in Riyadh, KSA Regarding Reasons, Response Time and in-Field Time of Non-transported Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Calls

Abstract

The primary objective of this study is to evaluate reasons, response and in-field time differences of Non-transported EMS calls in EMS stations in Riyadh, KSA.  Design: Retrospective, descriptive analytical study to scrutinize data in patient care reports (PCR) of non-transported emergency calls documented by responding SRCA Emergency Medical Technicians obtained from 10 EMS stations (distributed in East, West, South, North and Center of Riyadh) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for 3 consecutive months. The PCRs obtained of the months of March, April and May 2014. The analysis and data manipulation chosen for the data set was cross-tabulation,  mean and standard deviation. Results: Overall 7178 emergency calls were made to 10 different SRCA EMS centers in Riyadh during 03 months period from March to May 2014. All these emergency calls were responded by respective emergency centers in their location. 1791 emergency calls were reported as non-transported in patient care reports which accounts for 24.95% of the overall calls. From these  non-transported calls, 401 (22.38%) calls were found be cancelled by dispatch before the arrival at scene. In addition, 91 (5.08%) calls of that amount, patients were found dead on arrival at the scene. As SRCA is not allowed to transport dead patients, so the ambulances came back to their respective base stations without transporting the patient. Therefore, cancelled and dead calls were excluded from our analysis because these PCR were found majorly  incomplete. In addition, due to Stations' number was not specified in 171 calls (8.8%), these statistics were excludes to end up with 1219 (68%) calls  satisfy the inclusion criteria of this study. Conclusion: The larger volume of calls’ responses of EMS stations, the larger volume of non-transported calls . This study found that the busiest EMS stations scores high in not transporting patients. The study found also that the shorter response time doesn’t affect the decision of the transportation. A managerial and quality assurance review of the outcomes of non-transported calls is required, especially for patients with certain medical conditions. This study delineates the need for electronic reporting system.