Emergency Response Time and Fatalities in Rural Areas

Abstract More than 90 people die every day in motor vehicle accidents. Rural residents are found to be five times more likely than their urban counterparts to die in a motor vehicle accident and three times more likely to be hospitalized. Many factors contribute to the severity and outcome of an accident; however, emergency medical services response time is one easily modifiable factor that is heavily related to the location of the accident and the patient’s outcome. This purpose of this research was to investigate motor vehicle accidents and emergency response time in a rural setting. The results reveal that longer emergency response times lead to worse patient outcomes and a significant difference exists between the emergency response times in urban and rural locations. The present approach of emergency response time is based off urban settings and has contributed to a rising prevalence of rural motor vehicle fatalities. Interventions must be put into place along with awareness to combat this rising prevalence. Key words: motor vehicle, urban, rural, emergency medical service

Medical Response Times and Their Effect on Prehospital Care

Medical Response Times and Their Effect on Prehospital Care Storm J. Santos, Rural Health Scholar Dr. Naber, Faculty Advisor Department of Health Sciences Abstract Medical emergencies happen in a variety of different environments. Each environment comes with unique challenges that emergency medical responders must work through to safely alleviate any given medical emergency. This study examines the effect of medical team response times on the overall care of the patient as well as if population density (rural vs urban) further affects the overall care of the patient. This study was inspired by works that compared various environmental factors and their effects on the Emergency Medical System (EMS). After reviewing the works through comparing and compiling all evidence and results that pertained to EMS response times and patient outcomes, the following was concluded: Four environmental factors were found to alter response times: location of the given emergency, traffic flow, the location of ambulance site, and resources available to the response team. All four factors were shown to double medical response times. When compared to urban and rural population densities, patient mortality rates were found to be more than six times higher in rural areas than that of urban areas. Distance from the ambulance site to the emergency site was found to have the largest effect on patient outcome. The above conclusions were used to predict patient outcomes in emergency medical cases in rural areas

A Mobile Geo-Communication Dataset for Physiology-Aware DASH in Rural Ambulance Transport

Use of telecommunication technologies for remote, continuous monitoring of patients can enhance effectiveness of emergency ambulance care during transport from rural areas to a regional center hospital. However, the communication along the various routes in rural areas may have wide bandwidth ranges from 2G to 4G; some regions may have only lower satellite bandwidth available. Bandwidth fluctuation together with real-time communication of various clinical multimedia pose a major challenge during rural patient ambulance transport.; AB@The availability of a pre-transport route-dependent communication bandwidth database is an important resource in remote monitoring and clinical multimedia transmission in rural ambulance transport. Here, we present a geo-communication dataset from extensive profiling of 4 major US mobile carriers in Illinois, from the rural location of Hoopeston to the central referral hospital center at Urbana. In collaboration with Carle Foundation Hospital, we developed a profiler, and collected various geographical and communication traces for realistic emergency rural ambulance transport scenarios. Our dataset is to support our ongoing work of proposing "physiology-aware DASH", which is particularly useful for adaptive remote monitoring of critically ill patients in emergency rural ambulance transport. It provides insights on ensuring higher Quality of Service (QoS) for most critical clinical multimedia in response to changes in patients' physiological states and bandwidth conditions. Our dataset is available online for research community.Comment: Proceedings of the 8th ACM on Multimedia Systems Conference (MMSys'17), Pages 158-163, Taipei, Taiwan, June 20 - 23, 201

Innovative Mental Health Services in Rural Minnesota: Community-based Mobile Crisis Response Services

The purpose of this research project was to explore the relationship between the frequency of service utilization of the Community-based Mobile Crisis Response Services (MCR) provided by the Southwestern Mental Health Center (SWMHC) and the frequency of service utilization of emergency holds and civil commitments in Jackson and Cottonwood counties by month for the 2009 calendar year. The specific research question proposed was: Is there a relationship between the frequency of Community-Based Mobile Crisis Response Services and the frequency of emergency holds and civil commitments in Jackson and Cottonwood Counties? The significance of this research project was to explore statistically significant relationships and service utilization of MCR in rural southwestern, Minnesota. There is a large gap in research available to note MCR’s usage in geographically rural areas as well as MCR’s relationship to local emergency holds and civil commitments

Assessment of EMS Response and Hospital Arrival Times in Nebraska

Timely EMS response and ground transport to the appropriate hospital are essential to patients’ survival and health outcomes during emergencies. This study utilizes interactive Geospatial Information System (GIS) mapping to assess emergency medical service (EMS) response and hospital arrival times in rural and urban Nebraska counties. The goal is to determine if there are underserved areas in the State and to propose potential interventions if identified. 2018 Social Vulnerability Index Scores (SVI) collected from Census Data were also reviewed for these areas to see possible correlations. The interactive GIS map revealed the Western and Central regions of Nebraska to be the most underserved. Specifically, the map identified numerous underserved counties, including Gage, Pierce, and Hitchcock. A pattern emerged that showed access to emergency services decreases as the urban percentage decreases since many of the rural counties are primarily served by volunteer responders. Also, no correlations between SVI and underserved areas were identified for Lancaster, Pierce, and Hitchcock counties, but Gage County had a strong, positive correlation. Proposed interventions for the underserved counties may include mobile stroke units, community paramedicine, stroke-ready certifications for rural hospitals, improved access to other forms of transportation for trauma patients in addition to ground transport, and using telemedicine when transportation is not available

Autonomous Ambulance Concepts Designed by Creative Students

Five weeks into the current academic year, Cedarville University industrial and innovative design seniors have already wrapped up a transportation design project that could save lives. For their most recent project in transportation design, the students examined a real-life problem seen by first responders across the nation--how can their response time be shortened so that more lives are saved? This project began with a concept developed by Tom Balliett, CFO, Co-founder and Instructor at the International Center for Creativity (ICC) in Columbus, Ohio. As a paramedic, Balliett was intrigued by a new project that the lieutenant governor of Iowa, Adam Gregg, recently proposed to lower emergency response times in rural areas. Described by Gregg as “Uber for EMS,” Iowa is testing an app that crowdsources volunteers in rural areas

Emergency medical services (Ems) transportation of trauma patients by geographic locations and in-hospital outcomes: Experience from qatar

Background: Prehospital care provided by emergency medical services (EMS) plays an important role in improving patient outcomes. Globally, prehospital care varies across countries and even within the same country by the geographic location and access to medical services. We aimed to explore the prehospital trauma care and in-hospital outcomes within the urban and rural areas in the state of Qatar. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted utilizing data from the Qatar National Trauma Registry for trauma patients who were transported by EMS to a level 1 trauma center between 2017 and 2018. Data were analyzed and compared between urban and rural areas and among the different municipalities in which the incidents occurred. Results: Across the study duration, 1761 patients were transported by EMS. Of that, 59% were transported from an urban area and 41% from rural areas. There were significant differences in the on-scene time and total prehospital time as a function of urban and rural areas and municipalities; however, the response time across the study groups was comparable. There were no significant differences in blood transfusion, intubation, hospital length of stay, and mortality. Conclusion: Within different areas in Qatar, the EMS response time and in-hospital outcomes were comparable. This indicates that the provision of prehospital care across the country is similar. The prehospital and acute in-hospital care are accessible for everyone in the country at no cost. Understanding the differences in EMS utilization and prehospital times contributes to the policy development in terms of equitable distribution of healthcare resources

A Novel Low-Cost, Recyclable, Easy-to-Build Robot Blimp For Transporting Supplies in Hard-to-Reach Locations

Rural communities in remote areas often encounter significant challenges when it comes to accessing emergency healthcare services and essential supplies due to a lack of adequate transportation infrastructure. The situation is further exacerbated by poorly maintained, damaged, or flooded roads, making it arduous for rural residents to obtain the necessary aid in critical situations. Limited budgets and technological constraints pose additional obstacles, hindering the prompt response of local rescue teams during emergencies. The transportation of crucial resources, such as medical supplies and food, plays a vital role in saving lives in these situations. In light of these obstacles, our objective is to improve accessibility and alleviate the suffering of vulnerable populations by automating transportation tasks using low-cost robotic systems. We propose a low-cost, easy-to-build blimp robot (UAVs), that can significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of local emergency responses.Comment: IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC 2023

Educational needs of Australian rural and remote doctors for intermediate obstetric ultrasound and emergency medicine ultrasound

Introduction: The aim of this research was to determine the educational needs of Australian rural and remote doctors for intermediate obstetric ultrasound and emergency medicine ultrasound. The main research questions were: what educational topics would rural and remote doctors prefer to learn about in intermediate obstetric ultrasound and emergency medicine ultrasound, and what were those doctors' preferred methods of delivery for an ultrasound education program. Method: A self-administered postal questionnaire containing a pre-paid return envelope was mailed to 344 Australian rural and remote doctors in December 2003. Results: 107 completed questionnaires were returned, giving a response rate of 32.7%. This was after the denominator was adjusted for the 17 doctors whose letters were returned to sender. The respondents included 23 (21.5%) female and 84 (78.5%) male doctors. Eighty doctors (74.8%) stated that they used ultrasound, and 27 (25.2%) said they did not. Seventy-seven (72%) indicated they had previously participated in some ultrasound education and training. The respondents stated that their main areas of educational need in intermediate obstetric ultrasound were ectopic pregnancy (76.6%), miscarriage (72%), intrauterine growth restriction (65.4%), transvaginal scanning (47.7%), detecting fetal abnormalities (47.7%) and morphology scanning at 18-20 weeks (41.1%). The main areas of educational need in emergency medicine ultrasound were focused abdominal sonography in trauma (63.5%), detecting foreign bodies (40.2%), gynecological ultrasound (39.2%), gall bladder and biliary tract (37.4%), abdominal aortic aneurysm (32.7%) and trauma bleeding (31.7%). Conclusion: Australian rural and remote doctors are using ultrasound technology to improve the clinical investigation and diagnosis of a large variety of clinical conditions in their family medical practices. This paper describes the results of research into the educational needs of this target group of doctors