TITLE:
Predicting Use of Lights and Siren for Patient Illnesses
AUTHORS:
Jessica Mueller, Laura Stanley
KEYWORDS:
EMS; Lights and Siren; Emergency Mode; Transportation Safety
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Safety Science and Technology,
Vol.3 No.3,
September
20,
2013
ABSTRACT: Lights and siren are frequently used by Emergency Medical Service
(EMS) groups to reduce response times and increase a patient’s
chance for survival. However, the use of lights and siren in EMS patient
transport has been associated with occasional inappropriate use, higher crash
rates involving the ambulance, and a potential “wake effect” increasing crash
rates in ambient traffic. This study examines types of patient illnesses and
their involvement with either emergency (lights and siren engaged) or
non-emergency transport. Patient care records were analyzed from a
five-year period from a private medical transportation company. A binary
logistic regression model was built to predict the transportation
mode (lights and siren or non-emergency-mode) most likely to accompany each
unique primary patient illness. Patient illnesses were identified that showed a
higher probability of transport using lights and siren. Fifteen illness descriptions
were identified from the records as being more likely to result in emergency
mode travel, including airway obstruction, altered level of consciousness,
breathing problems, cardiac arrest, cardiac symptoms, chest pain, congestive
heart failure/pulmonary embolism, heart/cardiac, obstetrics, respiratory
arrest, respiratory distress, stroke/cerebrovascular accident,
trauma, unconscious, and patients where data was not entered. The patient
illnesses associated with lights and siren were not limited to cardiac conditions
and symptoms, which suggest that response-time goals based solely on cardiac
arrest patients may need to be expanded to include other illnesses such as
respiratory conditions. Expanded studies could assess whether or not
lights and sirens result in a clinically significant time savings across the
spectrum of illnesses that are currently being transported using lights and
siren. The list of illnesses identified here as more commonly utilizing lights
and siren could be useful to untrained EMS or dispatch workers to assist in
minimizing unnecessary emergency mode travel, thereby increasing safety for EMS
workers, patients, and the general public.