title: [Analysis of actions taken by medical rescue teams in the Polish Emergency Medical Servies system. Is the model of division into specialistad basic teams reasonable?].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Polish Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system is based on two types of medical rescue teams (MRT): specialist (S)--with system doctors and basic (B)--only paramedics.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study is to assess the reasonability of dividing medical rescue teams into specialist and basic.
  
  
  METHODS
  The retrospective analysis of medical cards of rescue activities performed during 21,896 interventions by medical rescue teams, 15,877 of which--by basic medical rescue teams (B MRT) and 6,019--by specialist medical rescue teams (S MRT). The procedures executed by both types of teams were compared.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the analysed group of dispatches, 56.4% were unrelated to medical emergencies. Simultaneously, 52.7% of code 1 interventions and 59.2% of code 2 interventions did not result in transporting the patient to the hospital. The qualification of S teams' dispatches is characterised by a higher number of assigned codes 1 (53.2% vs. 15.9%). It is worth emphasising that the procedures that can be applied exclusively by system doctors do not exceed 1% of interventions. Moreover, the number of the actions performed in medical emergencies in the secured region by the S team that is dispatched as the first one is comparable to that performed by B teams. The low need for usinq S teams'aid by B teams (0.92% of the interventions) was also indicated.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study points to the necessity to discuss the implementation of straightforward principles of call qualification and the optimisation of the system doctors' role in prehospital activities.
authors.forename: Przemysław
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Guła
authors.forename: Arkadiusz
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wejnarski
authors.forename: Remigiusz
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Moryto
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gałazkowski
authors.forename: Stanisław
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Swiezewski
mesh_terms: D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D057209:Hospital Rapid Response Team / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008511:Medicine / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017146:Models, Organizational; D011044:Poland; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013038:Specialization; D014187:Transportation of Patients / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data