Citation

Abbott RM. Fam. Community Health 2008; 31(1): 35-43.

Affiliation

College of Nursing, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR 72205, USA. abbottrosa@uams.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/01.FCH.0000304066.48195.a4

PMID

18091083

Abstract

In keeping with emergency medical services (EMS) industry standards, response time requirements of EMS units in Arkansas are temporally based and reflect traditionally accepted concepts of reasonable access to emergency care services. However, time-centric response standards may be unrealistic and may place ambulance staff and patients at risk, particularly during mass casualty events. In view of the availability of current technology to efficiently re-route EMS units on the basis of geographic realities, traditional 4-minute and 8-minute response time standards should be reevaluated and replaced by or added to standards that emphasize spatially based objectives.

Language: en