Emergency medical services key performance measurement in Asian cities

Abstract

BackgroundOne of the key principles in the recommended standards is that emergency medical service (EMS) providers should continuously monitor the quality and safety of their services. This requires service providers to implement performance monitoring using appropriate and relevant measures including key performance indicators. In Asia, EMS systems are at different developmental phases and maturity. This will create difficultly in benchmarking or assessing the quality of EMS performance across the region. An attempt was made to compare the EMS performance index based on the structure, process, and outcome analysis.FindingsThe data was collected from the Pan-Asian Resuscitation Outcome Study (PAROS) data among few Asian cities, namely, Tokyo, Osaka, Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Taipei, and Seoul. The parameters of inclusions were broadly divided into structure, process, and outcome measurements. The data was collected by the site investigators from each city and keyed into the electronic web-based data form which is secured strictly by username and passwords. Generally, there seems to be a more uniformity for EMS performance parameters among the more developed EMS systems. The major problem with the EMS agencies in the cities of developing countries like Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur is inadequate or unavailable data pertaining to EMS performance.ConclusionsThere is non-uniformity in the EMS performance measurement across the Asian cities. This creates difficulty for EMS performance index comparison and benchmarking. Hopefully, in the future, collaborative efforts such as the PAROS networking group will further enhance the standardization in EMS performance reporting across the region.

Comparative analysis of three prehospital emergency medical services organizations in India and Pakistan

“…In the area of health information systems, the finding that technology could play a pivotal role in streamlining service provision and data collection echoes similar findings from the PAROS study on the utility of investing in technology, as compared to paper-based systems [23]. From computer-aided dispatch, to electronic collection of patient information in the ambulance, to GPS coordinates of the event site, investing in technological solutions could enhance the efforts of organizations considerably.…”

“…Conversely, EMS within high-income countries tends to be more uniform, and largely, funded by the public sector [23, 24]. Weak overarching regulation and lack of standardization of services in this study presented unique challenges.…”

“…Within leadership and governance, the lack of integration and standardization (in terms of human resources and protocols) of public and private services in all three settings echoes findings from the Pan Asian Resuscitation Outcomes Study (PAROS) and the study by Nielsen et al across 13 LMICs [4, 23]. Conversely, EMS within high-income countries tends to be more uniform, and largely, funded by the public sector [23, 24].…”

Characteristics and Outcomes of Trauma Patients via Emergency Medical Services

“…It may be because the arrival time in the urban system is very short, around 18 minutes. Rahman et al [12] presented EMS systems in seven Asian countries including Seoul were compared. Seoul showed a Values are presented as mean±standard deviation or number (%).…”

Emergency psychiatric services in Roozbeh Hospital: A qualitative study of the staff's experiences

“…The increasing number of psychiatric emergency visits highlights the importance of uncovering staff's experiences . Monitoring the quality and safety of emergency services by healthcare providers has been identified as a key principle in emergency service standards . Healthcare workers’ concerns and attitudes have been regarded as significant resources in some studies, as they are the main players inpatient care .…”