EMERGENCY MEDICAL DISPATCHING - RAPID IDENTIFICATION AND TREATMENT OFACUTE MYOCARDIAL-INFARCTION

Emergency medical telephone calls (ie, those made to 9-1 or 7-digit em ergency numbers) are directed to emergency medical dispatchers (EMDs) who are responsible for quickly obtaining critical pieces of informati on from the caller, then activating an appropriate level of emergency medical services (EMS) response and providing the caller with patient care instructions until medical help arrives. The impact of well-train ed, medically managed EMDs on the early care of potential acute myocar dial infarction (AMI) patients is believed to be beneficial. However s tandards for emergency medical dispatching vary widely across the nati on. To improve emergency medical dispatching for AMI patients in the U nited States, this article by the Acces to Care Subcommittee on behalf of the National Heart Attack Alert Program makes a number of recommen dations regarding the use of medical dispatch protocols, provision of dispatch life support, EMD training, EMD certification, and emergency medical dispatch quality control and improvement processes. (C) 1995 b y W.B. Saunders Company)