Prehospital emergency care : official journal of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the National Association of State EMS Directors
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Hospital arrival via Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and EMS prenotification are associated with faster evaluation and treatment of stroke. We sought to determine the impact of diagnostic accuracy by prehospital providers on emergency department quality measures. ⋯ Recognition of stroke by EMS providers was independently associated with faster door-to-physician time, faster door-to-CT time, and greater odds of receiving thrombolysis. Quality initiatives to improve EMS recognition of stroke have the potential to improve hospital-based quality of stroke care.
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While emergency medical service (EMS) response times (ERT) remain a leading measure of system performance in many developed countries, relatively few studies have explored the factors associated with meeting benchmark performance for potentially time critical incidents. The purpose of this study was to identify system-level and patient-level factors associated with ERT, which are readily available at the time of ambulance dispatch. ⋯ System-level and patient-level factors available at the time of ambulance dispatch are useful predictors of ERT performance, which could be used to improve the timeliness of EMS response.