Two of the most prominent trends in healthcare right now—paradoxically— are diversification and mergers. Many larger healthcare entities are swallowing smaller ones, creating central hubs that offer huge varieties of services and smaller, outlying branded clinics that feed into the hubs. What this means for patient care remains to be seen. What it means for diversification within each organization, though, is already becoming apparent. Larger, merged entities can offer more varied continuums of care, including for example emergency services that lead directly into on-site rehabilitation and affiliated h
Recent estimates indicate that more than half of all Emergency Department (ED) visits could be avoided, reducing patient costs and increasing satisfaction with care. Since 911 is increasingly the first point of contact for many patients entering the health care system—even those with non-emergency conditions—one potential approach to decreasing emergency costs and ED overcrowding is to reinvent the 911 dispatch center as a clearinghouse for directing patients to alternative care providers. This study presents a cost avoidance analysis of two 911 dispatch centers that...
An examination of the Emergency Communications Nurse-determined Recommended Care Levels (RCLs), for calls transferred for secondary nurse-triage has not been performed. The outcome of such an investigation would help to gain a more complete picture of the type of care ultimately recommended for these patients. The Emergency Communications Nurse System (ECNS) studied contained 22 RCLs, ranging from urgent levels, including a country-specific 3-digit number Emergency response (911), and Emergency care as soon as possible to less time-dependent, low priority levels, such...
This study represents a first attempt to classify a subset of time-to-dispatch in a 911 center – the call prioritization time. This time is defined as the time required to gather critical case information, after the address is obtained, and prior to notifying responder units of the call. This study characterizes call prioritization time in nine different 911 centers, all using the Fire Priority Dispatch System (FPDS). Times were examined by individual agency, overall. This was a retrospective, non-controlled, descriptive study involving nine 911 and by FPDS...
Emergency dispatchers are exposed to potentially traumatic events at rates that likely exceed that of emergency first responders. Although not physically present at the time of the incident, it is likely that this repeated exposure in concert with highly stressful work conditions could lead to potentially negative emotional and physical outcomes. To date few studies have examined rates of stress related pathology and subsequent impairment in emergency dispatchers. The following study takes an initial step to investigate rates of Acute Stress Disorder, Secondary Traumatic Stress and...
911 agencies, Emergency medical services (EMS), and first responder agencies play a critical role in major disease outbreaks because they are a gateway to the overall healthcare system for a wide spectrum of patients who use 911 as their first point of access. For those patients, emergency dispatchers and emergency prehospital responders are the first professionals to communicate with, treat, and provide hospital transport for, patients who are infected with communicable diseases. Public health agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at the national level, and...
