Characteristic of Online Medical Direction of Emergency Medical Service, Khon Kaen Hospital

Abstract

The emergency medical system (EMS) plays a critical role in saving individuals experiencing medical emergencies. Therefore, the development of the EMS must be comprehensive to ensure the safety and satisfaction of the service recipients. Medical direction is divided into two types: offline medical direction and online medical direction (OLMD). Understanding the nature of OLMD will help identify the challenges associated with its implementation. The objective of this study was to assess the characteristics of online medical direction in the Emergency Medical Service at Khon Kaen Hospital. It was  conducted as a retrospective descriptive study that utilized data recorded in the emergency medical direction system through the Google form program, which was collected between June 2022 and August 2024. The data were organized descriptively using descriptive statistics. As for the results, 176 instances of online medical direction were conducted, involving 147  patients. Of these, 60.54% were male patients. The majority of them were over 60 years old, accounting for 54.42%, with an average age of 61.26 years. The emergency response team most frequently dispatched was the advanced life support (ALS) unit, accounting for 76.14%. The most commonly dispatched criteria based dispatch (CBD) was CBD 6 (cardiac arrest), accounting for 17.9%. The highest number of online medical direction instances occurred in the morning 44.89%. The most common outcome of online medical direction was hospitalization, with 46.94% of patients being admitted.