Review of complains about the late arrival of ambulances

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The arrival times of ambulances to the scene are a significant health quality indicator in terms of patient health and the public's trust in the system. In this study, it was reviewed whether complaints regarding ambulances are concentrated on certain days, hours, months, diagnoses, and triage codes. This study aims to contribute to the missing part of the literature and to improve emergency health services. Using these evaluations, pre-hospital health services can be assessed and required corrections can be implemented. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This was a retrospective registrational study. Complaints sent to the 112 head physician offices by petitions and to SABIM (Ministry of Health Communication Centre) and CIMER (Republic of Türkiye Presidency's Communication Centre) online regarding the late arrival of ambulances in Ankara Province between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2023 were reviewed. The data analysis was conducted using IBM SPSS 27.0 (Armonk, NY, USA: IBM Corp.). RESULTS: The study included 161 complaints sent within three years. Of the complaints, 54.3% were made by males. The highest number of complaints was received in the summer months and the lowest number was in November. The highest number of complaints was made on Fridays. In 2022, the command reaction times were shorter than in the other years. Reaction and case arrival times in off-site cases were longer compared to those for in-site cases. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, significant data were obtained about the active and effective use of 112 emergency ambulance services. Schedules should be drawn up taking into consideration the weekends and times when the number of patients is greater. Strategic arrangements can be made to utilize resources by reviewing previous data and complaints about ambulance systems. Such evaluations can be important sources for improving emergency healthcare services. Conducting these assessments and tasks regularly will inform future improvements such as reduced case transport times, reduced command reaction times and better pre-hospital care.