DELAY IN ANSWERING YELLOW CODES IN A MEDICAL EMERGENCY SERVICE IN THE CITY OF CORDOBA

Abstract

This study deals with the causes of delay in answering yellow codes in a private service of medical emergencies in the city of Cordoba. The levels of services are differentiated by codes according to risk of life and/or answering time in: Green (consultation or delay up to 3 hours), Yellow (urgencies or delay up to 20 minutes), Red (emergencies or delay up to 12 minutes), Blue (transfer of patients, no delay established). As the company agreements are not observed regarding answering time to yellow code, the stages of the process are analyzed, dispatching room and operative vehicles are observed and surveys and interviews to key participants are carried out. Total average Answering Time (AT) was 42:26 minutes; AT outside the area of influence of the vehicle (OA) was 50:23. If we consider AT in incoming call pick hour from 9am to 2 pm, it was 37:42 minutes; in the same timetable AT OA was 44:55 minutes. In peak hour from 6pm to 10pm AT found was 46:36 and OA   53:27 minutes. A 12.32 minutes delay was found in dispatching and 6.20 minutes in vehicle departure taking up 43% of Total Answering Time. The largest delay takes place during incoming call peak hours having a bimodal curve during the day; this delay is emphasized when vehicles are assigned outside the influence area.  Delay in dispatch is put down to lack of availability of vehicles, commercial green and yellow codes are assigned so that the vehicle complies with productivity generating less answering capacity because vehicles are busy. Delay in vehicle departure is due to discomfort of operative staff who besides, does not take answering time as a priority. Adaptation of operative offer to larger demand of yellow codes by agreements was not shown.