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Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and the California Ems Information System (CEMSIS) Working Paper
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2019-11-15
[PDF-2.66 MB]
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Edition:Final Report
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Abstract:This study examines data from the California EMS Information System (CEMSIS) to identify factors that influence prehospital time for EMS events related to motor vehicle collisions. While only 19 percent of the United States population resides in rural areas, over half of all traffic fatalities involve rural motor vehicle collisions. Relative inaccessibility of trauma centers and prehospital EMS time (activation, response, and transport time) likely contribute to the generally higher mortality rate in rural areas. The findings indicate that average overall EMS times were approximately twice as long for collisions in rural zip codes compared with urban zip codes. Several limitations influence the interpretation of these results: data on prehospital EMS times is missing for much of the state, zip code level location data is insufficient for adequate study of the effects of the built environment and road network on prehospital time, and the data suffers from selection and information bias. Although the present study cannot analyze the effect of longer prehospital times on patient outcome, other research has found that longer prehospital times may negatively impact patient health. Recommendations for reducing overall EMS times are provided, in addition to suggested improvements to CEMSIS data. To expand the type of analyses that can be conducted using CEMSIS data, EMS records must include fields that allow them to be linked to hospital and police datasets. When such data becomes available, research must be conducted to determine whether prehospital time is significantly related to patient outcome following motor vehicle collisions.
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Content Notes:The TRDP shows a Report Number of CSCRS-R4. This is incorrect. The correct Report Number is CSCRS-R12.
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