IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/hlthec/v22y2013i7p790-806.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do Emergency Medical System Response Times Matter For Health Outcomes?

Author

Listed:
  • Elizabeth Ty Wilde

Abstract

The introduction of technology aimed at reducing the response times of emergency medical services has been one of the principal innovations in crisis care over the last several decades. These substantial investments have typically been justified by an assumed link between shorter response times and improved health outcomes. However, current medical research does not generally show a relationship between response time and mortality. In this study, we explain the discrepancy between conventional wisdom and mortality; existing medical research fails to account for the endogeneity of incident severity and response times. Analyzing detailed call‐level information from the state of Utah's Bureau of Emergency Medical Services, we measure the impact of response time on mortality and hospital utilization using the distance of the incident from the nearest EMS agency headquarters as an instrument for response time. We find that response times significantly affect mortality and the likelihood of being admitted to the hospital, but not procedures or utilization within the hospital. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Elizabeth Ty Wilde, 2013. "Do Emergency Medical System Response Times Matter For Health Outcomes?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(7), pages 790-806, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:22:y:2013:i:7:p:790-806
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.2851
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.2851
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/hec.2851?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Abowd, John M. & Vilhuber, Lars, 2005. "The Sensitivity of Economic Statistics to Coding Errors in Personal Identifiers," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 23, pages 133-152, April.
    2. Guy David & Tanguy Brachet, 2011. "On the Determinants of Organizational Forgetting," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(3), pages 100-123, August.
    3. Susan Athey & Scott Stern, 2000. "The Adoption and Impact of Advanced Emergency Response Services," NBER Chapters, in: The Changing Hospital Industry: Comparing Not-for-Profit and For-Profit Institutions, pages 113-168, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. David, Guy & Harrington, Scott E., 2010. "Population density and racial differences in the performance of emergency medical services," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 603-615, July.
    5. Judith Hellerstein & David Neumark & Melissa McInerney, 2008. "Changes in Workplace Segregation in the United States between 1990 and 2000: Evidence from Matched Employer-Employee Data," NBER Chapters, in: The Analysis of Firms and Employees: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches, pages 163-195, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Buchmueller, Thomas C. & Jacobson, Mireille & Wold, Cheryl, 2006. "How far to the hospital?: The effect of hospital closures on access to care," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 740-761, July.
    7. Susan Athey & Scott Stern, 2002. "The Impact of Information Technology on Emergency Health Care Outcomes," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 33(3), pages 399-432, Autumn.
    8. David, Guy & Chiang, Arthur J., 2009. "The determinants of public versus private provision of Emergency Medical Services," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 312-319, March.
    9. Tanguy Brachet & Guy David & Reena Duseja, 2010. "The Effect of Shift Structure on Performance: The Role of Fatigue for Paramedics," NBER Working Papers 16418, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Courtemanche, Charles & Friedson, Andrew & Koller, Andrew P. & Rees, Daniel I., 2019. "The affordable care act and ambulance response times," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    2. Avdic, Daniel, 2016. "Improving efficiency or impairing access? Health care consolidation and quality of care: Evidence from emergency hospital closures in Sweden," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 44-60.
    3. Chaudhary, Sookti & Davis, Alison & Troske, Kenneth & Troske, SuZanne, 2019. "Hospital Closures and Short-Run Change in Ambulance Call Times," IZA Discussion Papers 12797, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Amir Ali Nasrollahzadeh & Amin Khademi & Maria E. Mayorga, 2018. "Real-Time Ambulance Dispatching and Relocation," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 20(3), pages 467-480, July.
    5. Clifford Winston, 2014. "How the Private Sector Can Improve Public Transportation Infrastructure," RBA Annual Conference Volume (Discontinued), in: Alexandra Heath & Matthew Read (ed.),Financial Flows and Infrastructure Financing, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    6. Seidel, André, 2023. "A global map of amenities: Public goods, ethnic divisions and decentralization," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    7. Avdic, Danie, 2015. "A matter of life and death? Hospital distance and quality of care: evidence from emergency hospital closures and myocardial infarctions," Working Paper Series 2015:1, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    8. Dolejš, Martin & Purchard, Jan & Javorčák, Adam, 2020. "Generating a spatial coverage plan for the emergency medical service on a regional scale: Empirical versus random forest modelling approach," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    9. Brent, Daniel & Beland, Louis-Philippe, 2020. "Traffic congestion, transportation policies, and the performance of first responders," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    10. Louis-Philippe Beland & Daniel A. Brent, 2018. "Traffic and the Provision of Public Goods," Departmental Working Papers 2018-04, Department of Economics, Louisiana State University.
    11. Tanguy Brachet & Guy David & Andrea M. Drechsler, 2012. "The Effect of Shift Structure on Performance," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(2), pages 219-246, April.
    12. Renee Y. Hsia & Delphine Huang & N. Clay Mann & Christopher Colwell & Mary P. Mercer & Mengtao Dai & Matthew Niedzwiecki, "undated". "A US National Study of the Association Between Income and Ambulance Response Time in Cardiac Arrest," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 6e8f6b4c687440568356aacaf, Mathematica Policy Research.
    13. Elena Lucchese, 2020. "It could be worse...it could be raining: Ambulance response time and health outcomes," Working Papers 429, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Feb 2020.
    14. Winston, Clifford & Mannering, Fred, 2014. "Implementing technology to improve public highway performance: A leapfrog technology from the private sector is going to be necessary," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 158-165.
    15. Fredrick Manang & Chikako Yamauchi, 2015. "The impact of access to health facilities on maternal care use and health status: Evidence from longitudinal data from rural Uganda," GRIPS Discussion Papers 15-19, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.
    16. Navin Bhatta & Shakhawat H. Tanim & Pamela Murray-Tuite, 2024. "Dynamics of Link Importance through Normal Conditions, Flood Response, and Recovery," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-35, January.
    17. José Castillo-Manzano & Mercedes Castro-Nuño & Xavier Fageda, 2014. "Can health public expenditure reduce the tragic consequences of road traffic accidents? The EU-27 experience," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 15(6), pages 645-652, July.
    18. Elena Lucchese, 2020. "Where are you? The problem of location during emergencies," Working Papers 439, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Apr 2020.
    19. Pieter L van den Berg & Peter Fiskerstrand & Karen Aardal & Jørgen Einerkjær & Trond Thoresen & Jo Røislien, 2019. "Improving ambulance coverage in a mixed urban-rural region in Norway using mathematical modeling," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(4), pages 1-14, April.
    20. Elena Lucchese, 2024. "How important are delays in treatment for health outcomes? The case of ambulance response time and cardiovascular events," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(4), pages 652-673, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Elizabeth Wilde, 2008. "Do Response Times Matter? The Impact of EMS Response Times on Health Outcomes," Working Papers 1065, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    2. Elizabeth T. Wilde, 2008. "Do Response Times Matter? The Impact of EMS Response Times on Health Outcomes," Working Papers 1065, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    3. Courtemanche, Charles & Friedson, Andrew & Koller, Andrew P. & Rees, Daniel I., 2019. "The affordable care act and ambulance response times," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    4. Elena Lucchese, 2020. "Where are you? The problem of location during emergencies," Working Papers 439, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Apr 2020.
    5. Chaudhary, Sookti & Davis, Alison & Troske, Kenneth & Troske, SuZanne, 2019. "Hospital Closures and Short-Run Change in Ambulance Call Times," IZA Discussion Papers 12797, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Glitz, Albrecht, 2014. "Ethnic segregation in Germany," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 28-40.
    7. John Abowd & Martha Stinson, 2011. "Estimating Measurement Error in SIPP Annual Job Earnings: A Comparison of Census Bureau Survey and SSA Administrative Data," Working Papers 11-20, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    8. Schmid, Andreas, 2007. "Incentive Compatibility and Efficiency in the contractual Insurer-Provider Relationship: Economic Theory and practical Implications: The Case of North Carolina," MPRA Paper 23311, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2008.
    9. Kyu-Tae Han & Woorim Kim & Seungju Kim, 2021. "Does Delaying Time in Cancer Treatment Affect Mortality? A Retrospective Cohort Study of Korean Lung and Gastric Cancer Patients," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-10, March.
    10. Simonsen, Marianne & Skipper, Lars & Skipper, Niels & Thingholm, Peter Rønø, 2021. "Discontinuity in care: Practice closures among primary care providers and patient health care utilization," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    11. Fischer, Stefanie & Royer, Heather & White, Corey, 2017. "The Impacts of Reduced Access to Abortion and Family Planning Services: Evidence from Texas," IZA Discussion Papers 10920, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Hilal Atasoy & Pei-yu Chen & Kartik Ganju, 2018. "The Spillover Effects of Health IT Investments on Regional Healthcare Costs," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(6), pages 2515-2534, June.
    13. Yue Guo & Fu Xin & Xiaotong Li, 2020. "The market impacts of sharing economy entrants: evidence from USA and China," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 629-649, September.
    14. Davide Consoli & Francesco Vona & Francesco Rentocchini, 2016. "That was then, this is now: skills and routinization in the 2000s," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 25(5), pages 847-866.
    15. Martin Carree & Boris Lokshin & René Belderbos, 2011. "A note on testing for complementarity and substitutability in the case of multiple practices," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 263-269, June.
    16. Hemant K. Bhargava & Abhay Nath Mishra, 2014. "Electronic Medical Records and Physician Productivity: Evidence from Panel Data Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(10), pages 2543-2562, October.
    17. Kollerup, Anna & Wadmann, Sarah & Bek, Toke & Kjellberg, Jakob, 2022. "National clinical guidelines and treatment centralization do not guarantee consistency in healthcare delivery. A mixed-methods study of wet age-related macular degeneration treatment in Denmark," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(12), pages 1291-1302.
    18. Loumeau, Gabriel, 2023. "Locating Public Facilities: Theory and Micro Evidence from Paris," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    19. Luis Garicano & Luis Rayo, 2016. "Why Organizations Fail: Models and Cases," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(1), pages 137-192, March.
    20. Spencer Leitch & Zhiyuan Wei, 2024. "Improving spatial access to healthcare facilities: an integrated approach with spatial analysis and optimization modeling," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 341(2), pages 1057-1074, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:22:y:2013:i:7:p:790-806. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/5749 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.