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- Title
Apparent Patterns in Ambulance Response Time in Timişoara.
- Authors
MORAR, Alexandru M.; EFLEIH-HASSAN, Larisa; LUNGEANU, Diana
- Abstract
Objective: The objective of our study was to explore the explanatory factors for ambulance response time. Methods: Four area quarters were delimited in the city geographical territory, based on natural barriers and large crossover roads. These zones were further considered for analysis of the call data over the year 2018, in a cross-sectional study. The data collected by the Ambulance Service of Timişoara on all solved cases comprised the city streets with: (a) the total number of calls and the four-level emergency number of requests for each; and (b) shortest, longest, and average response time. Additionally, for each street, the geographical coordinates (latitude and longitude) were approximated, and the distance to the corresponding dispatch center was calculated based on the equirectangular approximation. Descriptive statistics and a multi-variable General Linear Model (GLM) were applied for data analysis, with further Bonferroni adjustments for post-hoc comparisons. Results: Although the number of calls and the patterns of priority were indistinctive within the four zones, we found an apparent North-South pattern for the mean time to arrival. Adjacent areas would display differences of up to 2.82 minutes (169.3 seconds). GLM analysis indicated the mean time to arrival as significantly influenced by zone, medical emergency level, geographical distance, and interactions of the latter two factors with the former (p<0.001 for the model). On the other hand, the standardized R-squared=0.22 and partial Eta-squared values between 0.027 and 0.053 would require more explanatory factors for the variability in the time to arrival to be sought.
- Subjects
TIMISOARA (Romania); AMBULANCES; AMBULANCE service; PATTERNS (Mathematics)
- Publication
Applied Medical Informatics, 2020, Vol 42, Issue 1, p28
- ISSN
1224-5593
- Publication type
Article