Ambulance rescue times in fatal road accidents in the united states have improved little over the past few years. In rural areas, it still frequently takes a half-hour, or more, for an ambulance to arrive after a crash. On the average, this happens in about one out of every five fatal accidents. Ambulance rescue time consists of two almost equal components: response (or travel) time and communication time. A decrease in response time is unlikely in the future, but more could be done to reduce the time it takes to call for an ambulance. In particular, interagency delays in notification could be eliminated. A matched data set from Missouri shows that in 10 to 20% of fatal accidents the police delayed 5 min or more in notifying an ambulance dispatcher. Delays of this nature occur because a caller may fail to report injuries in the road accident. Perhaps an ambulance should be sent out anyway even if it is not certain that injuries are involved.
Samenvatting