California medicine
-
California medicine · Feb 1972
Emergency medical transportation. A survey of California ambulance operations.
The most urgent recommendation expressed by physicians, Red Cross officials, ambulance operators and others polled in this ambulance survey was to make much more emergency medical care training available to ambulance personnel. Very few sick and injured receive first aid before an ambulance arrives. Therefore there is also an urgent need to train and motivate the public to provide first aid at the scene of the emergency. ⋯ Seventy-eight percent of the ambulance operations serving the public are not listed among the emergency numbers on the inside front page of telephone directories. Less than ten percent of ambulances have direct radio communication with hospitals. In California most ambulance services are commercially operated and there are formidable financial problems which must be solved before these services can be brought into place as a part of the emergency medical care system.