EXAMINING RESPONSE TIME TO EMERGENCY CASES AND CAUSES OF DELAY IN MISSIONS OF 115 PREHOSPITAL EMERGENCY CENTER IN KHORRAMABAD

Background and Aim : pre-hospital emergency is an important department in healthcare servicesystem. Immediate, efficient and effective healthcare services save lives of many people andreduce the severity, length of illness and side effects.Methods : This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study on 5431 missions in five urban centers inKhorramabad in the first six months of 2016. Mission duration (dispatch time and response timeinterval from call receipt to ambulance arrival at the accident scene) and causes of delay inmissions were analyzed.Results : findings showed that 74.8% of missions were performed in less than 8 minutes (at thestandard time). Dispatch of ambulance from areas other than nearby centers (29.2%), routecrowdedness (traffic) (25%), long distance (22%), etc. were high frequency causes of delay inresponse to emergency cases.Conclusion : given the importance of 115 prehospital emergency care centers in reducing responsetime to emergency cases, the Ministry of Healthcare and Medical Emergency Department andother relevant organizations (e.g. Traffic Police) should allocate more funds to this sector andperform an accurate need assessment for required number of ambulances, emergency equipmentand centers based on population density and public demand in every urban area.

Keywords:

prehospital emergency , standard dispatch time , medical emergency