Summary
Emergency medical service staffing in Spain: physician, nurse and dispatch center resources
Martín Reyes R, Arcos González P, Castro Delgado R
Affiliation of the authors
Unidad de Investigación en Emergencia y Desastre, Departamento de Medicina, Universidad de Oviedo, Spain.
DOI
Quote
Martín Reyes R, Arcos González P, Castro Delgado R. Emergency medical service staffing in Spain: physician, nurse and dispatch center resources. Emergencias. 2014;26:7-12
Summary
Objective: To analyze the structure of out-of-hospital emergency medical service (EMS)
staffing in Spain, including physician, nurse, and dispatch center personnel.
Methods: Retrospective observational study of the EMS staff and dispatch center personnel in 17 autonomous communities and the autonomous cites of Ceuta and Melilla in 2009. To obtain information, we searched the published literature and conducted a structured questionnaire survey followed by direct contact with EMS administrative supervisors for clarification.
Results: The qualitative structure of physician and nurse staffing is similar in the different
areas of Spain, with significant positive correlation (R=.71, P<.006) in physician and nurse resources between EMSs. EMS physicians differ in number in the different communities, however. Ceuta, Castile-La Mancha, the Canary Islands, Extremadura, Navarre, and Rioja have significantly more physicians (P<.05), while Murcia, Valencia, Catalonia, the Basque Country, Galicia, Asturias, and Andalusia have fewer (P<.05). The numbers of EMS nurses also differ. Castile-La Mancha, the Canary Islands, Extremadura, Ceuta, and Melilla have significantly more nurses (P<.05) nurses, while Valencia, Cantabria, Andalusia, Asturias, and Galicia have fewer (P<.05). Differences were also detected with respect to physician and nurse supervisory staffing of dispatch centers (P<.05). Conclusions: EMSs of some Spanish communities have more attending physicians and nurses than others. Dispatch center personnel resources also differ. The EMSs in different autonomous communities have reasonably similar ratios of physicians to nurses.