BACKGROUND Emergency medical services (EMS) systems provide professional prehospital emergency medical care and transportation to help improve outcomes from emergency conditions. Ghana's national ambulance service has relatively low public utilization in comparison with the large burden of acute disease. METHODS A survey instrument was developed using Pechansky and Thomas's model of access co...

BACKGROUND Approximately 16,000 children are transported by ambulances each day, and there are an estimated 4,500 ambulance crashes each year. Information about emergency medical services (EMS) provider knowledge, opinions, and behaviors regarding occupant restraint is lacking. OBJECTIVES To measure the knowledge, opinions, and behaviors of EMS personnel regarding child and provider restraint...

BACKGROUND Response time is viewed as a key performance indicator in most emergency medical services (EMS) systems. OBJECTIVE To determine the effect of increased emergency vehicle numbers on response time performance for priority 1 incidents in an urban EMS system in Cape Town, South Africa, using discrete-event computer simulation. METHOD A simulation model was created, based on input dat...

Ambulance services are becoming a trend for early response to emergencies in major cities. The performance of the ambulance service will increase line with population and possible problems area. EMS essential at this time, as any life-threatening condition requires immediate action prevent disability death. Ambulances required provide assurance chronically ill patients that they is adequate can...

OBJECTIVES Assessment of microbial air quality and surface contamination in ambulances and administration offices as a control place without occupational exposure to biological agents; based on quantitative and qualitative analysis of bacteria, yeasts and filamentous fungi found in collected samples. MATERIAL AND METHODS The sampling was done by wet cyclone technology using the Coriolis recon...

We describe an ambulance location optimization model that minimizes the number of ambulances needed to provide a specified service level. The model measures service level as the fraction of calls reached within a given time standard and considers response time to be composed of a random delay (prior to travel to the scene) plus a random travel time. In addition to modeling the uncertainty in th...