ON-LINE MEDICAL DIRECTION (OLMD) OCCURRENCE IN NON-TRANSPORTED EMS CALLS AT RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA

6^th International Conference on Medical Informatics & Telemedicine

July 05-06, 2018 | Berlin, Germany

Daifallah Alrazeeni

King Saud University, Saudi Arabia

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Health Med Informat

Abstract :

Introduction: Primary objective of this study is to determine to what extent the on-line medical direction (OLMD) contact occurs in non-transported EMS calls in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Secondary objective is to determine to what extent the OLMD contact occurs in certain chief complaints of patients in non-transported calls. Design: Retrospective, descriptive study focused on data obtained from EMS patient care reports (PCR) of non-transported emergency calls obtained from 10 EMS stations (distributed in East, West, South, North and Center of Riyadh) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for 3 consecutive months ( March, April and May 2014). Results: Type of case Vs. OLMD contact: The majority of non-transported (761) calls (62.4%) OLMD contact did not occur. While 321 calls (26.33%) reported on-line medical contact, it is not clarified in 137 calls (11.2%). One hundred seven (107) calls (46%) have not been documented whether they were medical or trauma and 81 calls (34.9%) have not been documented whether there were OLMD contact or not. Chief Complaint of non-transported calls: Non-transported calls in which the chief complaint related to musculoskeletal system and nervous system represent 237 times (19.4 %) (X=21.8 Std.D=9.57 V=91.73) and 231 times (18.9%) (X=23.1 Std.D= 9.12 V = 83.21) respectively. The majority of non-transported calls 504 (41.3%) were not specified in the revised PCRs. There were calls related cardiac system (48 =3.9%), cardiovascular system (40 =3.2%), general weakness (68 =5.57%) and respiratory system (75 = 6.1%). Conclusion: This study reveals that OLMD played no role in the decision of patient transportation in the majority of nontransported calls in the PCRs reviewed. From our result, the enormous majority of non-transported, OLMD contact did not occur. It reveals also major deficiency in EMS documentation. In a large proportion of non-transported calls patient chief complaints were not mentioned.