Campus EMS Needs Assessment

These questions are intended to provide an outline for assessing your campus EMS needs. They can be discussed with student health services, campus public safety, your local ambulance transport and paramedic service providers, emergency dispatch center, your local hospital, and your regional trauma center to better understand the current availability of services to students, faculty, staff, and visitors to your campus.

1. Does your campus and surrounding area have 9-1-1 as the only emergency number to call for all emergencies?

[If your campus promotes the use of an on campus emergency number rather than 9-1-1 for emergencies, do the operators answering the campus emergency number have the direct ability to dispatch an ambulance and paramedics? What is the time delay in dispatching EMS through the campus emergency number versus the 9-1-1 system?]

2. How long does it take for the first responding unit to arrive at the scene of an emergency call on campus?

[Consider that CPR is most effective when started within four minutes of a cardiac arrest. How much time will elapse from the time of recognition of an incident, to calling for help, to a responder being dispatched, and the responder making patient contact?]

3. What is the training level of the first responder who arrives at the scene of medical emergencies on your campus?

4. Is the minimum level of emergency care training required for the police responding to emergencies on your campus at least equivalent to the National Highway Traffic Safety AdministrationŐs First Responder training program?

5. What is the minimum required training level of the first responding EMS personnel to arrive at the scene of medical emergencies on your campus?

[First Aid and CPR only trained responders are the most basic level of care provider. First Responders and EMTs are Basic Life Support (BLS) level responders and can provide oxygen, splinting, other basic care. BLS with automatic external defibrillator capability can provide defibrillation. In some states EMT Intermediate and EMT Critical Care trained responders can provide limited advanced life support (ALS) and advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) care. EMT Paramedics can provide full ALS and ACLS care.]

6. What is the minimum level of medical training required of the rescue personnel in your community who will respond to rescue calls on campus?

7. Does your campus have citizen CPR programs broadly available on at least a monthly basis?

8. Are all clinical personnel in your health service currently certified in CPR, and if advanced life support services are available on campus, are all clinical staff trained in ACLS?

9. How long does it take for an EMS transport unit to arrive at the scene of medical emergencies on campus? (Is there any difference from day to night, mid week to weekends, or when classes are in session as compared to academic breaks?)

[Consider whether your local ambulance service is staffed 24 hours per day or if there are times when responder may be on pagers. Also consider the call volume of your local EMS; does the system "stack" calls?]

10. Do the EMS units responding to your campus respond from their station within two minutes of their receipt of a request for emergency services?

[Additionally can EMS meet the standard of 10 minutes from time of initial patient contact to the time when transportation is started?]

11. Is your local EMS organization able to assure that prehospital ALS personnel (at a minimum, these personnel must be paramedics with a cardiac monitor-defibrillator) can arrive at the scene of an emergency within 8 minutes of a call for help?

12. On average, does a trauma victim arrive at an accredited trauma center within 30 to 60 minutes?

[For severely injured patients, the highest survival rates are achieved when trauma patients are able to gain access to the operating room within one hour of the time of injury.]

©2000
David J. Lindstrom, M.A., Associate Director for Administrative Services
The Pennsylvania State University
University Health Services
Office of Emergency Medical Services