The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) published the Pre-hospital Emergency Care Key Performance Indicators for Emergency Response Times in October 2012. They developed a set of key performance indicators (KPIs), which classify 999/211 emergency calls by clinical status. Clinical Status 1 Echo calls involve life-threatening emergencies of cardiac or respiratory origin. Clinical Status 1 Delta calls involve life-threatening emergencies of other than cardiac or respiratory origin. Detailed data-sets incorporating the necessary definitions are provided in the HIQA Report. In relation to calculating response times - the clock starts when the call verification period is complete and the following details have been ascertained: the callers telephone number, the nature of the chief complaint, the Advanced Medical Priority Dispatch System (AMPDS) dispatch code and the exact location of the incident. The clock stops when the first responder or the patient-carrying vehicle arrives at the scene of the incident.
The HIQA target for first responders (a person trained in minimum basic life support and use of a defibrillator) is to meet the Echo 1 and Delta 1 incident response time (7 minutes 59 seconds) in 75% of cases. The HIQA target for patient-carrying vehicles is to meet the Clinical Status 1 ECHO incidents response time (18 minutes 59 seconds) in 85% of cases. It is acknowledged that response-time indicators should not be used in isolation. Following a review of the validity of time-based KPIs for clinical status data, and in line with international views, it is considered that clinical outcome indicators would be more appropriate, and work has begun on their development.
