Designing, development and validation of an app to reduce the response time of the emergency medical services

Abstract

Introduction Delays in prehospital care attributable to the call-taking process can often be traced back to miscommunication, including uncertainty around the call location. Geolocation applications have the potential to streamline the call-taking process by accurately identifying the caller’s location. Objective To develop and validate an application to geolocate emergency calls and compare the response time of calls made via the application with those of conventional calls made to the Brazilian Medical Emergency System (Serviço de Atendimento Médico de Urgência—SAMU). Methods This study was conducted in two stages. First, a geolocating application for SAMU emergency calls (CHAMU192) was developed using a mixed methods approach based on design thinking and subsequently validated using the System Usability Scale (SUS). In the second stage, sending time of the geolocation information of the app was compared with the time taken to process information through conventional calls. For this, a hypothetical case control study was conducted with SAMU in the Maringá, Paraná, Brazil. A control group of 350 audio recordings of emergency calls from 2019 was compared to a set of test calls made through the CHAMU192 app. The CHAMU192 group consisted of 201 test calls in Maringá. In test calls, the location was obtained by GPS and sent to the SAMU communication system. Comparative analysis between groups was performed using the Mann-Whitney test. Results CHAMU192 had a SUS score of 90, corresponding to a “best imaginable” usability rating. The control group had a median response time of 35.67 seconds (26.00–48.12). The response time of the CHAMU192 group was 0.20 (0.15–0.24). Conclusion The use of the CHAMU192 app by emergency medical services could significantly reduce response time. The results demonstrate the potential of app improving the quality and patient outcomes related to the prehospital emergency care services.