A STUDY ON AMBULANCE RESPONSE TIME IN THREE SELECTED HOSPITALS IN MALAYSIA: DO WE REALLY NEED A DEDICATED PRE HOSPITAL PARAMEDIC?

Abstract

Introduction. 

Ambulance service is the nerve of pre hospital care system. Inappropriate delay in response may result in worsening outcomes to patients. It is believed that having a dedicated training for pre hospital paramedic will improve the quality of care but whether it will reduce the response time may need to be confirmed.

Methodology.

A retrospective cross sectional study was conducted at three selected state hospitals in Malaysia, namely Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) and Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Klang (HTAR) which provide a dedicated pre hospital paramedic and Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II (HRPZII) which practice a multitasking paramedic service. The objective was to measure the mean response time of the ambulance services and to determine the association between the hospital with dedicated pre hospital paramedic and with multitasking paramedic in relation to the response time of the ambulance trip for an emergency cases.

Result. 

HKL and HTAR had median of 0.19 while HRPZII had median of 0.20. The hospital with dedicated pre hospital paramedic team had median of 0.19 minutes while the hospital without paramedic team had median of 0.20 minutes (Z-score - 0.995, P-value 0.320). 

Conclusions. 

There is no significant difference of ambulance response time in hospital with dedicated pre hospital paramedic team and hospital with multitasking paramedic team.