Objectives: To estimate the lifesaving potential of interventions to accelerate the administration of intravenous thrombolysis for myocardial infarction. Methods: Data were analysed from a prospective, observational study of all patients transported to hospital by ambulance, who subsequently received intravenous thrombolysis at 20 hospitals and two ambulance services in Victoria, Australia (n =...

OBJECTIVES To identify whether the practice of the UK ambulance trusts comply with national recommendations with respect to when ambulance personnel are allowed to recognise death and/or terminate resuscitation attempts in the adult, normothermic, non-traumatic cardiac arrest. METHODS Questionnaire study of 39 ambulance trusts. RESULTS At the time of the study (summer 2000), 23 trusts opera...

Elderly patients with less urgent medical needs represent a high proportion of all emergency patients in Japan; this trend is gradually increasing, presenting a burden on the emergency medical system. To design effective interventions, it is important to understand the basic characteristics of emergency service use. For elderly Japanese patients, there is currently no detailed report on less ur...

This paper describes Nowadays the road accidents in modern urban areas are increased to uncertain level. The loss of human life due to accident is to be avoided. Traffic congestion and tidal flow are major facts that cause delay to ambulance. To bar loss of human life due to accidents we introduce a scheme Intelligent Traffic Control for Congestion, Ambulance clearance, and Stolen Vehicle Detec...

BACKGROUND Equity of access to appropriate pre-hospital emergency care is a core principle underlying an effective ambulance service. Care must be provided within a timeframe in which it is likely to be effective. A national census of response times to emergency and urgent calls in statutory ambulance services in Ireland was undertaken to assess current service provision. METHODS A prospectiv...

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) agencies are increasingly being held to an ambulance response time (RT) criterion of responding to a medical emergency within 8 min for at least 90% of calls. This recommendation resulted from one study of outcome after nontraumatic cardiac arrest and has never been studied for any other emergency. This retrospective study evaluates the effect of exceeding the 8...

BACKGROUND Hypoglycaemia is a common and potentially life threatening consequence of insulin and sulphonylurea treated Diabetes. Some severe hypoglycaemic events result in emergency ambulance attendance. Many of these patients are treated at home and do not require immediate transportation to an Emergency Department. However only 27-37 % of patients then follow up their care with a diabetes spe...

BACKGROUND Exposure to cold temperatures is often a neglected problem in prehospital care. Cold exposure increase thermal discomfort and, if untreated causes disturbances of vital body functions until ultimately reaching hypothermia. It may also impair cognitive function, increase pain and contribute to fear and an overall sense of dissatisfaction. The aim of this study was to investigate injur...

STUDY OBJECTIVE To compare rates of undertriage and overtriage of six ambulance dispatch protocols for the presenting complaint of nontraumatic abdominal pain, and to identify the optimal protocol. DESIGN Retrospective prehospital and emergency department chart review to classify patients' conditions as "emergency" or "nonemergency." Utility analysis was used to identify the preferred protoco...