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Response times for emergency medical needs: A retrospective analysis of quality indicators for the Region of Belgrade

Katarina Vojvodic 

Statement of the Problem: There are 7 emergency medical service (EMS) providers in the Region of Belgrade, Serbia, 6 on municipality level and one organized for 11 municipalities. In Serbia EMS is physician-staffed. The EMS responsetime (RT) is a measure of performance, but also a measure of quality and apredictor of health outcomes. Emergency medical conditions are time-dependent and need to be treated as fast as possible to obtainthe best health results for patients. The aim of this study is to assess the quality of pre-hospital EMS and RT for category 1 (life-threatening)emergency medical callsin Belgrade. Methodology: There are three quality indicatorsregarding RT for category 1 emergency calls:RT-I from receipt of call to inform EMS team, RT II -from receipt of call to arrival on scene, RT III-from arrival on scene to discharge of EMS team.A retrospectivestudy of EMS quality indicators was conducted for RT I and RT II (2009-2018) and for RT III (2011-2018).Findings:Theretrospective analysisshows that mean RTI was 1.10±0.21, mean RTII 8.12± 0.47 andmean RTIII 25.64±3.46.Nosignificant correlationsexist between year, number of emergency calls and RTs (Pearson’s r and Spearman’s ρ> 0.05). RTIII has beenreduced since 2016, with no significant correlationsbetween RTI, RTII and the number of emergency calls.Conclusion & Significance:Response times play a big role in patient survival and full recovery after life-threatening medical events. A decrease of RT onlyfor one minute can improve health outcomes.The results show that RTIII got shorter, representing more efficient EMS, providing on-time interventions and increasing turn-over rate. RTI and RTII did not change significantly over time, indicating that additional research should be done in order to suggest methods for time reduction.