Delays in EMS ambulance dispatch disrupt the entire EMS patient care process. What begins as a non-issue can easily expand and impact crew resources, transport vehicle resources, patient satisfaction scores, referring agency satisfaction, and above all, patient care. Certainly, some delays are unavoidable due to traffic or other uncontrollable influences.
However, given that EMS dispatch call delays can completely destroy the successful flow of EMS response to emergency and non-emergency scheduled and non-scheduled patient transport requests, the ambulance system must aim to minimize delays.