Improving Response Recommendations with MARVLIS
There is an old expression in our business that says, “if you have seen one EMS system, you have seen one EMS system.” This expression highlights the unique differences inherent in each agency that provides emergency medical services. However, we share several of the same pressures in the post-pandemic world we operate within, particularly when it comes to paramedic recruitment and retention, that leads us in the same direction. For many services, the evolving solution is the tiering of their responses to match resources more appropriately with requests.
According to the 2023 NAEMT National Survey, over 28% of respondents were migrating from an all-ALS workforce to a tiered structure. It also reported that nearly 49% were looking to lengthen response time standards.
It has long been recognized that a significant proportion of call-outs require only basic assessment and treatment. Yet our standard of care typically delivers an advanced level of skills within an unjustifiably short time. To successfully navigate a migration from “fastest ALS” to an “appropriate level of care in a reasonable timeframe” goes far beyond hiring the right mix of staff. We must support the necessary decisions of controllers and dispatchers to quickly match the right resources to each request. I like to refer to the shift as moving from “the right response times on every call” to “the right call for responses every time.”
Depending on the acuity of a call, it may be that the closest resource is passed over for a more appropriate response from further away. This judgement can preserve a scarcer resource in a critical position for another response that appropriately addresses a current need. The response decision engine in MARVLIS offers the option to develop the comparative rules to automate these types of recommendations. More importantly, these rules help ensure consistency in the way these various difficult call assignments are made.
If you want to learn more about how these rules are written in MARVLIS Dashboard, contact me about a PDF that provides a few examples that have been used at successful agencies.
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Offshore Medic with over 2 decades of service. I hold multiple offshore certifications. Send a connection, let’s be friends.
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