A cross-sectional study on emergency medical services response time as a criterion of sustainability of health development in the rural area

Increasing health services in rural areas is one of the goals of developing countries and one of the factors controlling migration to cities. One of the important health services is emergency medical services (EMS), the efficiency of which depends on the speed of service provision. In this study, EMS response time was investigated in a large rural area in western Iran. The statistical population of this study included all villages in Tuyserkan district, Iran, all of which were included in the study. The research data included local characteristics such as distance between villages and road conditions, response time was calculated for each village and its population were collected using official information registered in the local health organization. The results showed that the minimum available response time was more than 7 min for 82.5% of the villages and only 17 villages were located in the less than 7 min response time zone. 43,834 people of the studied villages were lived in the more than 7 min response time zone. The results showed that response time less than 7 min was available in only 5.3% of rural ambulance dispatch in the studied area. Therefore, changing the location of rural EMS bases and increasing the number of EMS bases is necessary to reduce the risk of long response time in rural areas.