Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Comparative Study
Response time effectiveness: comparison of response time and survival in an urban emergency medical services system.
Emergency medical services (EMS) administrators seek methods to enhance system performance. One component scrutinized is the response time (RT) interval between call receipt and arrival on scene. While reducing RTs may improve survival, this remains speculative and unreported. ⋯ In this observational study, emergency calls where RTs were less than 5 minutes were associated with improved survival when compared with calls where RTs exceeded 5 minutes. While variables other than time may be associated with this improved survival, there is little evidence in these data to suggest that changing this system's response time specifications to times less than current, but greater than 5 minutes, would have any beneficial effect on survival.
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To describe pediatric emergency department (ED) utilization within a Medicaid managed care system and to investigate the association between pediatric ED utilization and the type of medical home. ⋯ Despite the presence of a defined medical home, ED use was common among preschool children enrolled in the statewide Medicaid managed care program. The type of medical home was an important determinant of ED use in this population.