Emergency and Ambulance Services are responsible for making sure that proper medical treatment is provided to people at the time of emergency in a timely manner
Emergency and Ambulance Services are critical in saving the life of people in incidents like fire, road accidents, illness emergencies, and the like. These services differ from normal ambulance services offered by hospitals and clinics on the ground that the medical transportation vehicles embed all necessary medical care equipment and medication required to give urgent medical care to the patients.
Most Emergency and Ambulance Services are associated with the call support centre and works hand-in-hand to deal with emergency situations in the city or a particular region. The medical service first aims at early detection of the incidence where emergency medical attendance is required, and then reporting and responding to the scene as quickly as possible is the second priority. Good on scene care is provided to the patient by the trained medical rescuer in the form of first aid and then the patient is loaded into the transportation vehicle in case of critical injuries and accidents. Appropriate care is given to the patient throughout the journey to prevent further injury and promote recovery. Finally the patient is handed over to the emergency care unit of a hospital or clinic in the care of physicians.
Emergency and Ambulance Services use a number of medical service transportation vehicles (ambulances) to effectively deal with medical emergencies on time. These vehicles are in the form of chassis-cabs, modern medical vans, SUV-based Echo units, and many more. These ambulances are equipped with a wide array of medical accessories and life-saving equipment to give emergency care to the injured or ill person. Some of the common pre-hospital medical equipment available in an emergency vehicle are cot stretchers, defibrillators, electronic suction units, oxygen flowmeters, etc.
With relate to Emergency and Ambulance Service KPIs can be broadly arranged in four perspectives- vehicle and fleet management, pre hospital medical equipment, operational efficiency, and support centre and service reach. Vehicle and Fleet Management Perspective provides comprises of KPIs like number of ambulances, number of Rapid Response vehicles, % rise in Patient Transport Service (PTS) vehicles, etc. Pre Hospital Medical Equipment Perspective includes KPIs like % of vehicles equipped with basic medical amenities, % of Vehicles equipped with advanced equipment, average replacement time of equipment, etc. Operational Efficiency take into account KPIs such as Accident and Emergency (A&E) vehicles availability, Patient Transport Service (PTS) vehicles availability, % reduction in vehicle breakdowns, etc. Support Centre and Service Reach Perspective constitutes of KPIs in the form of average call response time, % dip in abandoned/terminated calls, etc.
The availability of medical emergency vehicles is a major factor in deciding whether the service is efficiently handling the emergency situations or not. It is important that more and more vehicles are included in the fleet of the emergency service organization and existing vehicles are to be maintained properly to avoid accidental breakdowns and unavailability. Support Centre efficiency is also crucial in measuring the success level of the emergency service. A high rate of abandoned calls and high response time is an alarming sign for the management. KPIs in Emergency and Ambulance Service facilitates in analyzing the working aspect by keeping an eye on key factors related to the service.