Misuse of emergency medical services is whereby individuals both citizens and medical personnel misuse emergency medical resources such as ambulances for personal gain or for reasons which do not qualify to be termed as an emergency. The healthcare system is very crucial for the well-being of the society and when misuse of the emergency medical services takes place, it results in negative repercussions. Generally, in America, the health care system is strained in various ways and the misuse of the emergency medical service leads to a heightened strain on medical resources. This paper provides an insight into the various ways emergency medical services are misused, their impact, and ways on how to prevent their misuse.
Emergency medical services are supposed to be reserved for patients in critical and life-threatening conditions however some patients with medically deemed unnecessary conditions end up utilizing the emergency services creating competition. Emergency medical services such as the deployment of ambulances should be for patients facing medical complications such as heart attacks and breathing difficulties among others. However, in America, minor medical complications such as sprained ankles and minor cuts among other situations utilize emergency medical services (Donovan, 2009). Concerning this, patients with more critical and complex conditions end up missing out receiving medical services in time which leads to further deterioration of their health and sometimes even loss of lives. Patterson, Yealy, and Moore, 2011 found that between 1997 and 2007 the number of unnecessary patients transported with the ambulance increased from 13% to 17%. When emergency medical vehicles respond to the less urgent medical cases, they increase the waiting time for the patients with critical medical complications.
Some people call emergency response medical crews without knowing the level of medical urgency their condition is. Research conducted in the level I trauma hospital in the Bronx indicated that 15% of the 638 trauma reports were deemed medically unnecessary (Cho, Eckardt, " Acosta et al., 2007). There have been several cases whereby people have called for emergency medical services because their medical prescription drugs were depleted and they needed a refill. Others call the emergency medical service for show off; to let the neighbors and the family members know they were “really” sick yet in the actual sense their condition is not. Others call in for medical assistance simply because they did not have a means of transport to take them to the healthcare facility (Donovan, 2009). Such unnecessary calls for emergency medical services creates a strain in healthcare as most ambulances end up being used for minor complications and when a serious medical condition crops up there are no available ambulances for the response. In addition, such cases make the emergency response teams work around the clock and overtime thus losing ample time for sleep, meals, and education. Generally, this makes the emergency response team to get reduced to a taxi service which reduces their morale and productivity.
Our society has different types of people and the poor are among it and they do not have enough funds to cater for their basic needs such as food, shelter, clothing or healthcare. Therefore when the poor people in the society need medical attention they end up utilizing the emergency medical services since the bill is footed by someone else usually the government. The poor and the homeless fear heading to healthcare facilities on their own because most of them do not have insurance or enough funds to get treated at the facilities (Bledsoe, 2011). Research done in Johnson County, Kansas found that almost 50% of the 35,000 emergency calls for transport turned out not to be actual emergencies and many of the emergency requests were done by individuals who lacked medical insurance due to their poverty level (Kavilanz, 2009). When the poor and the homeless individual misuse the emergency service, it creates a strain in the medical system as a lot of resources are deployed and get depleted to respond to emergencies which turn out to be not emergencies. Its cost around $ 400 to mobilize an ambulance to respond to a medical emergency and when the case turns out not to be an emergency the whole situation turns out to be a loss as a lot of funds will have been used to no effect.
There are several solutions that can be put into effect to stop misuse of emergency medical services in America such as holding the patient accountable for a portion of the cost of the emergency service (Donovan, 2009). This will discourage patients form misusing medical emergency services for unnecessary medical emergency conditions since they would not want financial charges inflicted on them. Another solution is to create awareness programs to educate the public concerning emergency cases so that they can differentiate between necessary and unnecessary emergencies which will, in turn, reduce the request for inappropriate emergency services. Reducing health care costs for the poor and homeless is another way to stop the misuse of emergency medical services since their medical needs will easily be cared for at the health facility, therefore, there would be no need for using emergency medical services to get treated (Bledsoe, 2011). Finally, the medical personnel may need to assess the health condition of the person requesting medical service before deploying emergency vehicles by asking the patient further questions concerning their health to understand whether the medical condition is an emergency or not.
References
Bledsoe, B. (2011). EMS System Abuse. JEMS. Retrieved from: https://www.jems.com/articles/2011/01/ems-system-abuse.html?c=1
Cho, E., Eckardt, P., Kilbury, L., " Acosta, J.F. (2007). Is EMS Over or Under-utilized in the South Bronx: A Retrospective View. The New York Medical Journal, 2(1).
Donovan, R. (2009). Why Ambulance Abuse Happens and How to Fix it. EMS1. Retrieved from: https://www.ems1.com/ems-management/articles/682274-Why-ambulance-abuse-happens-and-how-to-fix-it/
Kavilanz, P. (2009). EMS Officials Speak Out on '911 Abuse'. Retrieved from: http://www.ems1.com/medical-clinical/articles/585548-EMS-officials-speak-out-on-911-abuse/
Weaver, M.D., Moore, C.G., Patterson, P.D., " Yealy, D.M. (2011). Medical Necessity in Emergency Medical Services transports. American Journal of Medical Quality, 27 (3), 250-5
