Innovation in the use of motor ambulance for prehospital emergency care

Prehospital emergency care system is one of the important parts of the health system. Heavy traffic, increasing urban population, and growing demands for prehospital emergency services are challenges faced by this section of the health system. One of the approaches to deal with this issue is using motor ambulances.

This study aims to investigate the missions of motor ambulances, ambulances, and the effects of motor ambulance services on response time and ambulance missions.

This applied research has been designed as a descriptive and cross‑sectional study. Overall, 267,836 missions carried out by ambulances and motor ambulances of Tehran emergency medical service (EMS) Center in the years 2014 and 2015 were investigated. The data were gathered personally by visiting Tehran EMS Center. The data were analyzed by Excel (2013) software.

The average response time for ambulances and motor ambulances were 16 min and 14 min and 13 s, respectively. Most of the ambulance and motor ambulance missions were reportedly due to weakness (20%) and heart problems (16%). In 57% of ambulance missions and 71.5% of motor ambulance missions, the patients refused to being transferred to the hospital. Most of the transport missions to hospital (24%) were caused by traffic accidents.

According to the results, the response time was higher than the national standards. Locating motor ambulances on the streets and outside emergency stations during peak traffic times decreased the response time by 2 min and by providing the necessary services in the scene and transferring fewer patients to the hospital, it is possible to provide further services by assigning ambulances to more urgent missions. Thus, it is recommended to employ more seasoned staff, multiply motor ambulances, and locate motor ambulances precisely to decrease response time and also at a lower cost more citizens are provided with prehospital care.