Scientific article
OA Policy
English

Symptom-Based Dispatching in an Emergency Medical Communication Centre: Sensitivity, Specificity, and the Area under the ROC Curve

Published inInternational journal of environmental research and public health, vol. 17, no. 21, no. Emergency Medical Services Research, 8254
Publication date2020-11-09
First online date2020-11-09
Abstract

Background: Measuring the performance of emergency medical dispatch tools used in paramedic-staffed emergency medical communication centres (EMCCs) is rarely performed. The objectives of our study were, therefore, to measure the performance and accuracy of Geneva’s dispatch system based on symptom assessment, in particular, the performance of ambulance dispatching with lights and sirens (L&S) and to measure the effect of adding specific protocols for each symptom. Methods: We performed a prospective observational study including all emergency calls received at Geneva’s EMCC (Switzerland) from 1 January 2014 to 1 July 2019. The risk levels selected during the emergency calls were compared to a reference standard, based on the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) scale, dichotomized to severe patient condition (NACA ≥ 4) or stable patient condition (NACA < 4) in the field. The symptom-based dispatch performance was assessed using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Contingency tables and a Fagan nomogram were used to measure the performance of the dispatch with or without L&S. Measurements were carried out by symptom, and a group of symptoms with specific protocols was compared to a group without specific protocols. Results: We found an acceptable area under the ROC curve of 0.7474, 95%CI (0.7448–0.7503) for the 148,979 assessments included in the study. Where the severity prevalence was 21%, 95%CI (20.8–21.2). The sensitivity of the L&S dispatch was 87.5%, 95%CI (87.1–87.8); and the specificity was 47.3%, 95%CI (47.0–47.6). When symptom-specific assessment protocols were used, the accuracy of the assessments was slightly improved. Conclusions: Performance measurement of Geneva’s symptom-based dispatch system using standard diagnostic test performance measurement tools was possible. The performance was found to be comparable to other emergency medical dispatch systems using the same reference standard. However, the implementation of specific assessment protocols for each symptom may improve the accuracy of symptom-based dispatch systems.

Keywords
  • Fagan nomogram
  • Communication centre
  • Criteria-based dispatch
  • Emergency medical dispatch
  • Emergency medicine
  • Medical priority dispatch
  • Paramedical
  • Symptom
  • Triage scale
Citation (ISO format)
LARRIBAU, Robert Michel P. D. et al. Symptom-Based Dispatching in an Emergency Medical Communication Centre: Sensitivity, Specificity, and the Area under the ROC Curve. In: International journal of environmental research and public health, 2020, vol. 17, n° 21, p. 8254. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17218254
Main files (1)
Article (Published version)
Secondary files (2)
Appendix - Figure S1
accessLevelPublic
Appendix - Table S2
accessLevelPublic
Identifiers
Additional URL for this publicationhttps://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/21/8254
Journal ISSN1660-4601
285views
463downloads

Technical informations

Creation19/08/2022 13:27:00
First validation19/08/2022 13:27:00
Update16/03/2023 07:28:08
Status update16/03/2023 07:28:06
Last indexation01/11/2024 02:37:48
All rights reserved by Archive ouverte UNIGE and the University of GenevaunigeBlack