Dispatch guideline adherence and response interval—a study of emergency medical calls in Norway

BMC Emergency Medicine

Table 1 The six Index indicators and their effect on EMD response interval^a

	All calls (N = 299)		Ambulance dispatches (N = 279)
					EMD response interval (min:sec)^a
	N	%	N	%	Median	IQR^b	P-value
Caller’s phone number confirmed							0.973
Within 1 min	59	20	56	20	2:49	2:01
1–2 min	19	6	18	6	2:21	2:31
After 2 min/none	221	74	205	73	2:28	2:54
Location confirmed							0.225
Within 1 min	247	83	237	85	2:23	2:36
1–2 min	23	8	22	8	3:00	2:52
After 2 min/none	29	10	20	7	3:11	4:27
Patient’s consciousness							0.429
Within 1 min	249	83	231	83	2:23	2:32
1–2 min	24	8	23	8	3:12	4:27
After 2 min/none	26	9	25	9	2:39	3:00
Patient’s responsiveness							0.086
Within 1 min	240	80	224	80	2:23	2:33
1–2 min	29	10	26	9	3:57	3:56
After 2 min/none	30	10	29	10	2:03	2:26
Criteria compliance^c							0.001
All criteria confirmed	191	64	184	66	2:17	2:17
1 criterion unconfirmed	33	11	29	10	2:39	2:04
2+ criteria unconfirmed	75	25	66	24	3:48	4:59
Communication							0.691
Good	256	86	241	86	2:33	2:39
Difficult^d	43	14	38	14	2:22	2:48

^aEmergency Medical Dispatch response interval: Time from 113 call is answered until an ambulance is dispatched
^bIQR Interquartile range
^cHow many criteria above the one set by the operator is not answered for during the call
^dDifficult communication includes language difficulties, non cooperative caller and caller not on scene (third hand information)

ISSN: 1471-227X