Professional paper
MOTORCYCLE EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICE
FRAN RAŠIĆ
orcid.org/0000-0002-4398-7568
; University of Zagreb, School of Medicine, Zagreb, Croatia
LUCIJA STOJČIĆ
; Teaching Institute of Emergency Medicine of the City of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
MARINO ČANAĐIJA
; Teaching Institute of Emergency Medicine of the City of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
GORAN STOKIĆ
; Teaching Institute of Emergency Medicine of the City of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
ANĐELA SIMIĆ
; Institute of Emergency Medicine of Varaždin County, Varaždin, Croatia
Abstract
Emergency Medicine Service, in cooperation with the City of Zagreb, has been implementing the pilot project Medical Emergency Motorcycle Assistance since 2016, with two motorcycles provided to enable emergency medical assistance. In 2019, the project was expanded with the acquisition of two new more powerful motorcycles. The T3 teams, motorcycle medical technicians, intervene from April to October as three teams deployed at three locations, i.e. Center, Jarun and Dubrava. The aim of the project is to shorten the time of emergency medical (EM) team arrival to the site of intervention, reduce the cardiac arrest mortality, provide more effi cient allocation of available resources (teams in the fi eld), and raise the standard of EM care in Zagreb. Their advantage is that they get to casualties on city roads as quickly and easily as possible, especially during traffi c jams. It takes the mean of 5.18 minutes for a motorcycle ambulance to arrive to the intervention site versus 10.45 minutes needed for the standard ambulance team to arrive. In 2019, the total number of motorcycle EM interventions was 807, of which 253 were standalone and 554 together with the EM team. Eleven resuscitations were started by a medical technician on the motorcycle and the mean arrival time for high-risk emergency was 4.57 minutes. Motorcycles are equipped with an automatic external defi brillator, oxygen, respiratory care equipment, glucometer, IV cannulas, infusions, bandages, collars, splints and START triage sets. Some of the limitations of a motorcycle ambulance are the weather, highrisk work, equipment (limited space on the motorcycle), fi nancing the motorcycle teams, and number of EM team members. The goal in the future is to further educate the teams and increase the number of interventions, standardize staff, increase the number of teams, and renew the existing equipment.
Keywords
emergency medical care; motorcycle intervention; resuscitation
Hrčak ID:
236582
URI
Publication date:
16.3.2020.
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