Emergency medical dispatching: rapid identification and treatment of acute myocardial infarction. National Heart Attack Alert Program Coordinating Committee Access to Care Subcommittee.
Emergency medical telephone calls (ie, those made to 9-1-1 or 7-digit emergency numbers) are directed to emergency medical dispatchers (EMDs) who are responsible for quickly obtaining critical pieces of information from the caller, then activating an appropriate level of emergency medical services (EMS) response and providing the caller with patient care instructions until medical help arrives. The impact of well-trained, medically managed EMDs on the early care of potential acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients is believed to be beneficial. However, standards for emergency medical dispatching vary widely across the nation. To improve emergency medical dispatching for AMI patients in the United States, this article by the Access to Care Subcommittee on behalf of the National Heart Attack Alert Program makes a number of recommendations regarding the use of medical dispatch protocols, provision of dispatch life support, EMD training, EMD certification, and emergency medical dispatch quality control and improvement processes.
D002568:Certification; D002985:Clinical Protocols; D004631:Emergency Medical Service Communication Systems / Q000592:standards*; D004634:Emergency Medical Technicians / Q000193:education / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D008020:Life Support Care; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000628:therapy*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D014481:United States