Essay Sample on Emergency Response Services

Provision of emergency services requires proper planning and major operational decisions. These decisions involve dispatching policies and where nurses should be situated for quick response to emergency services (Henderson & Mason, 2004). According to Henderson & Mason, (2004), service provision requires the integration of political, economic and medical frameworks that establish how resources will be allocated to provide efficient emergency services.

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The quantitative decision-making process is an important aspect in providing efficient ambulance services on the basis of resource allocation and accountability of the funds used (Henderson & Mason, 2004). Provision of services in emergency care requires timely responses and well-coordinated activities to facilitate saving of patients' lives in cases of emergency. The planning process of in the health care sector faces policy questions on how many nurses should be employed. What policies should be followed in providing the services? What technology should be provided to ensure success in response of emergencies?

Efficiency and proper coordination is an indicator of successful service provision in providing accidents and emergency services (Henderson & Mason, 2004). In providing emergency response services success is based on how soon the paramedics and clinicians responded to a distress call to save a life. It is required that 50% of the ambulances should reach patients within 8 minutes while 95% of the ambulances should reach patients within 14 minutes in urban centers and 19 minutes in rural areas (Mcgrath, 2002). The chart below illustrates the workflow of an ambulance response service.

Workflow Chart of Emergency Response Services:

1. Call allocated through CAD to the available nurses
2. An ambulance with nurses for the scene of incidence from the hospital
3. An ambulance with nurses arrives at the scene of the emergency
4. An ambulance departs for the hospital with a patient
5. Nurses arrives at the hospital and the patient is received at the emergency bay: patients received by EMS
6. Incoming call requesting for an a nurse response: received at the control room

Policy and Rules Involved

The rules put forward to guide the dispatching of nurses in an ambulance. It is a requirement that all ambulances should be controlled by a computer-aided dispatch system. The other policy requirements are on the basis of where should be ambulances stationed (Henderson & Mason, 2004). The rules are also on what procedures should be followed upon receiving a call to ensure a rapid response. The other rules are on the number of ambulances to be dispatched in case more than one is needed what decisions should be made. The other rules are on the quick response within a span of 8-19 minutes based on geographical location (Henderson & Mason, 2004).

Technology

In the provision of services, nurses using ambulances require an efficient technological framework to allow quick response to emergencies. The control room has a response management team which works closely with health care providers. The control room uses computer-aided dispatch system that allocates incoming calls to the nearest ambulance. The system automatically logs the details of calls as they are received (Henderson & Mason, 2004). It dispatches the calls to the waiting ambulances. The call charges are often free to allow access to the services faster. They also use Geographic information system to locate areas where there is a call for help. The system gives details of the easier route to use which will allow fast arrival to the scene of the emergency. GIS gives the details of the traffic situation en route to the scene of emergency and back to the hospital.

Information needed in providing ambulance services includes the postal address of where the incident occurred. The callers also provide demographics of people affected and a brief explanation of the type of emergency (Ong et al., 2009). The caller also gives the situation of where there is a need for emergency services, for example, a house, road, mall, school among others. The information provided helps the emergency response team to have an idea of the characteristics of the patients they will be handling (Ong et al., 2009).

Outcome Measures

The information collected helps in analyzing the success of emergency medical services by providing details of how quickly the nurses responded to an emergency. How soon did the ambulance arrive at the scene of incidence? This is measured based on minutes used from dispatch to arrival at the scene of the emergency. The efficiency of the computer-aided dispatch system is measured on the basis of how fast it can dispatch calls and how efficiently it records information of the patients and emergency medical services characteristics. Computer-aided dispatch systems are also measured based on how well it can store information of the geographic location of the incoming calls. The other metric on the success of emergency service response is based on the condition of the ambulances and allocation of resources to emergency services (Ong et al., 2009).

Areas of improvement

Provision of emergency services using ambulances is guided by a single tier response system which gives consideration to what is deemed severe medical condition when responding to an emergency, therefore, a faster response may be limited. Therefore efforts put forward to improve the system include plans to introduce tiered response systems with the different capability of integrating GIS in emergency response (Ong et al., 2009)

The purpose of creating awareness in the provision of emergency services especially in providing ambulance services is because the work often stresses and it requires proper planning and organization. Emergency response requires rapid action and provide medical care in critical cases that involve the saving of lives. The emergency response team also requires to be prepared to deal with unfamiliar situations in inconvenient situations (Sterud, Ekeberg & Hem 2006).

Bibliography

Henderson, S.G., & Mason, A.J. (2004). Ambulance Service Planning Simulation and Data Visualization. International series in Operations Research and Management Science, 70, 77-102.

McGrath, K. (2001). The golden circle: A case study of organizational change at the London Ambulance Service. European Journal of Information Systems. 11(4), 251-266.

Ong, M.E., Ng, F.S., Overton, J., Yap, S., Andresen, D., Yong, D.K., Lim, S.H., & Anantharaman, V. (2009). Geographic-time distribution of ambulance calls in Singapore: utility of geographic information system in ambulance deployment (CARE 3). Annals of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore, 38(3), 184-91.

Sterud, T., Ekeberg, O. & Hem, E. (2006). Health Status in the Ambulance Services: A Systematic review. BMC Health Services Research, 6, 82 - 82.