Development of a pre-hospital care emergency medical operations system

Abstract

This research aims to design and manage Pre-hospital Emergency Medical Service (Pre-hospital
EMS) under the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA). The program was put into the practical
by applying it in selected study areas: Khon Kaen, Ubon Ratchathani Phuket and Songkhla. Moreover, the
efficiency of the program was investigated with regard to quality tools i.e., Why-Why analysis, Critical-to-Quality
(CTQ) and Service Quality Model. The results showed that the practical of Pre-hospital EMS designed included
leadership, strategic planning, customer focus, measurement and analysis including Knowledge Management,
workforce focus and process management ,are successful and has possibility to achieve more efficiency under
MBNQA framework. According to the Why-Why analysis, the major obstacle of the program is considered to
be the lacking support from policy maker of the related organization. Hence, the quality of Pre-hospital EMS is
not fully developed to improve the quality of the system according to category 3 and 5-6. Additional, CTQ found
that some items are required for the patients in order to improve the quality of the system according to category
1 and 3 to 6, e.g. availability of medical equipments, ambulances, and communication devices, skill of staffs and
EMD. Furthermore the Service Quality Model analysis pointed out customers expected the better service . The
problems of low satisfaction can be occurred due to short of information about the patient needs and expectation,
ignorance of quality control of the service center, and lack of support from local administrators, which resulted
in the improvement of the quality of the program according to category 1, 3 and 6.