Ranking the Factors Affecting Readiness of Prehospital Emergency Care According to the Perspectives of Staff in Mazandaran Prehospital Emergency Services

Background and In urban health care system, pre-hospital emergency medical services are the first line to deal with critical patients. If a fast and accurate medical care is delivered, deaths and disabilities resulting from diseases reduce and trust of people to this system will increase. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors influencing the readiness of pre-hospital emergency care in Mazandaran province.
In this descriptive cross sectional study the population included 362 staff in pre-hospital emergency settings in Mazandaran province of whom 191 were selected by simple random sampling. Data was collected using a researcher-made questionnaire. Data was analyzed applying one sample t-test and Friedman’s test.
The most important effective factors on readiness of pre-hospital emergency care in Mazandaran province included human resources, equipment and logistics, training courses, information and communication technology, management and organization, and motivation. According to the staff in pre-hospital emergency care settings two factors including motivation (4.37 from 5) and human resources (2.26 from 5) had the most and least effects. Other effective factors included equipment and logistics (4.36), information and communication technology (3.30), training courses (3.19), and management and organization (3.15).
Motivation was found to be the most influencing factor affecting the readiness of pre-hospital emergency staff in Mazandaran province, therefore, policy-makers and managers should pay more attention to the incentives and all factors affecting the quality of services delivered.