Abstract
Introduction
Ambulance service design is often reminiscent of the economic status of a country, with pre-hospital care in low to medium income countries relying on basic life support services and an historical ‘swoop and scoop’ Anglo-American emergency medical service model. The connection between pre-hospital intervention and patient outcome in low to medium income countries is unclear. This scoping study undertook an examination of the literature to establish the level and quality of patient care data collection, especially as it impactsambulance case times in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Methods
A scoping review methodology with topic specific keywords including ‘ambulance’, ‘emergency medical service’, ‘pre-hospital’ (and their variants) using MEDLINE, CINAHL, Cochrane and EMBase databases was used.
Results
Of the 202 articles returned, 185 were screened, 85 full text articles were reviewed for relevance. Forty-three publications were included in the study with a number of other relevant from the grey literature.
Conclusion
The scoping study found there is no consistency in data collection methods in Indonesian or Malaysia, with some organisations collecting high quality data while others do not collect pre-hospital data. The study recommends deeper investigation into the status of standardisation of emergency medical services in the two countries and the manner in which the data is reported.
References
Pittet V, Burnand B, Yersin B, Carron P. Trends of pre-hospital emergency medical services activity over 10 years: a population-based registry analysis. BMC Health Serv Res 2014;14:380.
Smith RM, Conn AK. Pre-hospital care - scoop and run or stay and play? Injury 2009;(Suppl 4):S23-6.
Beuran M, Paun S, Gaspar B, et al. Pre-hospital trauma care: a clinical review. Chirurgia (Bucur) 2012;107:564-70.
Ryynänen O, Iirola T, Reitala J, Pälve H, Malmivaara A. Is advanced life support better than basic life support in pre-hospital care? A systematic review. Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med 2010;18:62
Kondo Y, Fukuda T, Uchimido R, Hifumi T, Hayashida K. Effects of advanced life support versus basic life support on the mortality rates of patients with trauma in pre-hospital settings: a study protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ Open 2017;7:e016912.
Isenberg D, Bissell R. Does advanced life support provide benefits to patients? A literature review. Prehosp Disaster Med 2005;20:265-70.
Sanghavi P, Jena AB, Newhouse JP, Zaslavsky AM. Outcomes of basic versus advanced life support for out-of-hospital medical emergencies. Ann Intern Med 2015;163:681-90.
Callaham M. Evidence in support of a back-to-basics approach in out-of-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation vs ‘advanced’ treatment. JAMA 2015;175:205-6.
Hooper C. Time to respond - pre-hospital leadership and operational management. Chicago: Bookventure; 2016.
Rahman NH, Tanaka H, Shin SD, et al. Emergency medical services key performance measurement in Asian cities. Int J Emerg Med 2015;8:3.
Durham M, Faulkner M, Deakin C. Targeted response? An exploration of why ambulance services find government targets particularly challenging. Br Med Bull 2016;120:35-42.
Choi SJ, Oh MY, Kim NR, et al. Comparison of trauma care systems in Asian countries: a systematic literature review. Emerg Med Australas 2017;29:697-711.
Latif M A. Medical Planning for Mass Gathering Events. Workshop Presentation. University of Malaya: Kuala Lumpur. October 2017.
Singapore Clinical Research Institute. About PAROS. Singapore Clinical Research Institute. 2018. Available at: www.scri.edu.sg/crn/pan-asian-resuscitation-outcomes-study-paros-clinical-research-network-crn/about-paros/ [Accessed 11 November 2018].
Laboratory of Emergency Medical Service. Undated. About PATOS CRN. 2018. Available at: http://lems.re.kr/eng/patos-about/ [Accessed 29 June 2018].
Levac D, Colquhoun H, O’Brien KK. Scoping studies: advancing the methodology. Implement Sci 2010:5(69).
Yusvirazi L, Wijaya Ramlan AA, Hou PC. State of emergency medicine in Indonesia. Emerg Med Australas 2018;30:820-6.
Go TL, Lim CS, Danapalasingam KA, Tan MLP, Tan CW. A review on development and optimization of emergency medical services in Malaysia. Jurnal Teknologi 2014;70:93-6. Available at: https://jurnalteknologi.utm.my/index.php/jurnalteknologi/article/view/3470 [Accessed 20 July 2019].
D’Ambruoso L, Byass P, Qomariyah SN. ‘Maybe it was her fate and maybe she ran out of blood’: Final caregivers’ perspectives on access to care in obstetric emergencies in rural Indonesia. J Biosoc Sci 2010;42:213.
Al-Shaqsi S. Models of international emergency medical service (EMS) systems. Oman Med J 2010;25(4).
Myers BA, Fisher RP, Melson N, Belton S. Defining remoteness from healthcare: integrated research on accessing emergency material care in Indonesia. AIMS Public Health 2015;2(3).
Thaddeus S, Maine D. Too far to walk: maternal mortality in context. Soc Sci Med 1994;38:1091-110.
Levesque J, Harris MF, Russell G. Patient-centred access to health care: conceptualising access at the interface of health systems and populations. Int J Equity Health 2013;12:18.
NHS England. 2018 Statistical Note: Ambulance Quality Indicators (AQI) AQI Statistical Note, 8 November 2018. Available at: www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/11/20181108-Ambulance-Quality-Indicators-Statistical-Note.pdf [Accessed 11 November 2018].
NSW Health. 2018-19 Service Agreement. An agreement between Secretary, NSW Health and NSW Ambulance for the period 1 July 2018 - 30 June 2019. Available at: www.ambulance.nsw.gov.au/media/docs/NSW%20Ambulance%202018%2019%20SA-e6fc7ca6-d253-4818-a6db-f23c6586dcdb-0.pdf [Accessed 27 September 2019].
Perry P. Setting basic standards in a developing ambulance service: a qualitative description of the impact of the intermediate ambulance care course on pre-hospital care practice in Penang, Malaysia. 2016, University of Adelaide.
Patel AB, Waters NM, Blanchard IE, Doig CJ, Ghali WA. A validation of ground ambulance pre-hospital times modeled using geographic information systems. Int J Health Geogr 2012;11:42.
Li P, Yu D. Predictors of pre-hospital delay in Hong Kong Chinese patients with acute myocardial infarction. Eur J Cardiovascr Nurs 2018;17:75-84.
Singapore Clinical Research Institute. About PAROS. Singapore Clinical Research Institute 2018. Available at: www.scri.edu.sg/crn/pan-asian-resuscitation-outcomes-study-paros-clinical-research-network-crn/about-paros/ [Accessed 11 November 2018].
Nurumal MS, Karim SSA. Out of hospital cardiac arrest in Kuala Lumpur: Incident, adherence to protocol, and issues: a mixed method study. Malaysian Journal of Public Health Medicine 2015;15:94-103.
C. Hooper. 2016. Time to Respond- Pre- hospital Leadership and Operational Management. Bookvenuture: Chicago. p.15.
Laboratory of Emergency Medical Service. About PATOS CRN. 2018 Available at: http://lems.re.kr/eng/patos-about/ [Accessed 29 June 2018].
Singapore Clinical Research Institute. Members of PAROS CRN. 2019. Available at: www.scri.edu.sg/crn/pan-asian-resuscitation-outcomes-study-paros-clinical-research-network-crn/members/ [Accessed 29 June 2018].
Kong, J. Programme Booklet of PATOS Introduction. Introduction to PATOS. Available at: http://lems.re.kr/eng/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/02/Slides_1.pdf. Presented 2017.08: PATOS Research Workshop (Seoul, Korea)
NHTSA Office of EMS. NEMSIS: Uniform Pre-Hospital Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Dataset. US Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Version 2.2.1. 2006. Available at: https://nemsis.org/technical-resources/version-2/version-2-dataset-dictionaries/ [Accessed 11 Nov 2018].
Brown HA, Douglass KA, Ejas S, Poovathumparambil V. Development and implementation of a novel pre-hospital care system in the State of Kerala, India. Prehosp Dis Med 2016;31:663-6.
Smullen A, Hong PK. Comparing the health care systems of high-performing Asian countries. Asia Pac Policy Stud 2015;2:347-55.
Callese TE; Richards CT, Shaw P, et al. Trauma system development in low- and middle- income countries: a review. J Surg Res 2015;193:300-7.
Hisamuddin NA, Hamzah MS, Holliman CJ. Pre-hospital emergency medical services in Malaysia. J Emerg Med 2007;32:415-21.
Suryanto, Plummer V, Boyle M. EMS systems in lower-middle income countries: a literature review. Prehosp Dis Med 2017;32:64-70.
Choi SJ, Oh MY, Kim NR, et al. Comparison of trauma care systems in Asian countries: A systematic literature review. Emerg Med Australas 2017;29(6).
Ismail S, Zia N, Samad K, et al. Pre-hospital airway management in emergency and trauma patients: a cross-sectional study of ambulance service providers and staff in a low- and medium- income country. Prehosp Dis Med 2015;30:606-12.