FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO DELAYED AMBULANCE RESPONSE TIME USING AMBULANCE VEHICLE LOCATOR AND GLOBAL INTEGRATING SYSTEM (AVL- GIS) AT HOSPITAL UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA

This study aims to determine ambulance response time in KubangKerian district, Kelantan, Malaysia using Ambulance Vehicle Locator and Global Integrating System (AVL-GIS) device and the factors associated with delayed response time. This was a 6-months prospective, cross-sectional study conducted at Emergency and Trauma Department, Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) in Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia. The possible factors identified to have caused delayed ambulance response time from previous literature were included in this study. All prehospital cases from September 2017 until February 2018 attended to by AVL- GIS installed ambulances were included in this study. Data were obtained from the standardized prehospital Proforma forms and extracted from AVL-GIS using iGPS software. Simple and multiple logistic regression tests were used to determine the factors associated to delayed response time. From 505 cases, 75% found to be delayed case meanwhile 25% is non delayed case as defined in study protocol. Further analysis on delayed cases show that call duration, caller type, traffic condition, travelling time and team allocation time were associated with delayed ambulance response time. Evaluation of each component contributing to delayed ambulance response time is needed for intervention to improve prehospital care in the future.