Developing Optimal Ambulance Services

¶ … King County Emergency Management System: Ambulances This paper reviews the relevant literature to determine how the seven unit hour production (UHP) processes work together to simultaneously achieve clinical excellence, response time reliability, economic efficiency, and customer satisfaction in the operation of King County Emergency Management System (EMS) with a specific focus on its ambulance services.

An assessment concerning whether any of the processes have unintended consequences that negatively impact the system's performance is followed by a discussion concerning which of these processes work and do not work within the King County, Washington EMS. Finally, a summary of the research and important findings concerning the King County EMS are presented in the conclusion.

Review and Discussion Today, tertiary healthcare facilities in the United States are required by 42 CFR 482.55 (the Conditions of Participation for Hospitals for Emergency Services) to ensure that they meet the emergency needs of patients in ways that are congruent with acceptable standards of practice (Hamilton, 2006).

Although emergency management systems differ in their organization, most of the EMSs in the United States operate using a single-tier system that uses advanced life support (ALS) response personnel and equipment or a multi-tiered system that includes ALS as well as basic life support (BLS) personnel and equipment (Wilson, Gratton, Overton & Watson, 1992). There are advantages and disadvantages for patients associated with each alternative, but some researchers suggest that a single-tier, all-ALS system can provide superior emergency management services compared to the use of a multi-tiered system (Wilson et al., 1992).

The overarching goal of the unit hour production process is to optimize the use of ambulance in an EMS in ways that ensure the most efficient use of these resources that matches a community's needs while eliminating wasted produced unit hours (Unit hour production process, n.d.). In this context, the seven unit hour production (UHP) processes are as follows: 1. Demand analysis 2. Flexible demand-based scheduling of staff 3. Recruitment and orientation 4. Clinical quality and training 5. Fleet operations 6. Materials and equipment management 7.

Operations management and support (Unit hour production process, n.d., slide 7). In situations such as cardiac arrest where seconds can make the different between life and death, the careful evaluation of a community's ambulance needs and average response times over a period of time can help determine what blend of advanced life support and basic life support services can provide this optimal outcome (Unit hour production processs, n.d.).

Despite the need, the majority of cities in the United States either fail to track their ambulance response time or apply ineffective criteria in assessing their effectiveness (Davis, 2003). To its credit, though, the King County EMS uses a multi-tiered response approach that is based on an accurate demand analysis and ensures the thoughtful coordination and integration of the complete unit hour production process (Hayes & Fogarty, 2015).

In fact, the citizens of King County are four to five times as likely to survive a cardiac arrest as their counterparts in other cities (Hayes & Fogarty, 2015). Conclusion With thousands of lives at stake, developing and administering an optimal emergency management service represents a timely and valuable enterprise. In far too many cases, though, the research showed that municipalities are failing to provide their.