Faster Ambulance Response Could Cut Deaths

A study has found that the survival rate of patients in cardiac arrest could be almost doubled if ambulances reduced their response time to five minutes. The study, conducted by a team of researchers at the University of Glasgow (Scotland), was reported in the June 9, 2001, issue of the British Medical Journal.

The team analyzed all out-of-hospital cases of cardiopulmonary arrest due to heart disease that were attended by the Scottish Ambulance Service between May 1991 and March 1998. This was to determine the association between ambulance response and cardiac arrest survival. Using this information, the team developed two predictive models that could be used to assess the effect of reduced responses on survival.

The response time of ambulances was found to be independently associated with defibrillation and survival. Ambulances in the United Kingdom are currently required to respond to 90% of emergency calls within 14 minutes. The research team's predictive models showed that lowering this time to eight minutes would have the effect of increasing survival from 6-8%. Lowering the response time to within five minutes would increase survival 10-11%.

However, as the authors noted, reducing response time would require additional resources. Another solution is suggested by previous studies, which found that equipping other first line responders, such as fire fighters and the police, with defibrillators to reduce response time would also help to reduce the additional cost.




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British Medical Journal