Emergency Medical service Essay

The purpose of this report is to socially analyze the first assignment that has already been conducted. This report is divided into two parts, the first part reflects on the matter of the first assignment to identify and list significant issues discussed in the assignment. The second part performs a social analysis of the identified problems of the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) organization by using a number of sources related to the subject. Personal reflection of first assignment In the first assignment, my task was to analyse and construct a common KADS model for an Emergency Medical service (EMS) situated in Netherlands. EMS was facing difficulties in serving the large area around its location in a proper and efficient way. Many efficiency related issues were arising regarding the functioning of EMS. On analysis it became apparent that these difficulties were related to three types of delays that were encountered: †¢ Patient delay †¢ GP arrival delay †¢ Treatment delay In order to overcome these difficulties, some solutions were recommended. Analysing real life organizations and making recommendations for betterment is not an easy task and relatively new for me therefore, lots of effort was put in gathering the relevant information, understanding the job descriptions and requirements. Then in depth analysis and thorough study of the working of organization was performed to reach the proper conclusions and the recommendations made were also tested for efficiency and betterment. The common KADS methodology was employed to perform the analysis and resolve the problems regarding the real life data of organizations which was a new concept for me and common KADS requires analysis and modelling to be performed through tables that depict many aspects of organization like problems and opportunities, solutions available and the process and working of the organization. Application of these methodologies to improve the efficiency of working of an organization and finding solution is different and new but with constant effort I was able to grasp the general idea of application of common KADS and making use of the common KADS methodology tables were used for analysis of EMS organization and solution was found to resolve the difficulties faced by the organization in its working. The example of Ice cream case study provided by the lecturer went a long way in helping me understand the idea of common KADS and how we perform analysis of real life organization data using the common KADS methodology. On reflection I find common KADS methodology interesting to study and I fully understand now the worth of this tool in making in depth analysis of organizations to find solutions for betterment in an organization. Common KADS is an efficient tool to use in group projects for data analysis and to make inferences regarding the state of organizations. Social analysis: In the previous assignment Common KADS modelling and analysis was applied to the EMS organization and three problem areas were identified: patient delay, GP arrival delay and treatment delay. In this section we will analyse the above identified problems and we shall define social theories to gain in depth understanding of these problems. The first problem identified is the patient delay. Patient delay is the average waiting time of the patient before calling the GP. This estimated time for the EMS organization is one hour. Reducing this delay can play a major role in decreasing the rate of death due to patient delay. In Netherlands monarchy system of government is established where a policy exists in which an individual or a function is in authority and controls all other persons under him in a company or organization. In this situation most people are trained to work under one person’s authority without any interference (Davenport & Prusak 1997). In this kind of monarch system of government implemented in Netherlands, people often own little responsibility as they are more prone to listening than action. Therefore, most of the people are hesitant in calling the GP even when they feel sick, until they are quite sure of their ailing condition. This patient delay problem can be solved by starting awareness programs in public to make them take due action quickly and contact the GP when they fall ill. According to Nonaka and konno(1998, pp42) the tacit knowledge can be exchanged between the individuals through a lot of activities such as being together, spending time and written or verbal instructions which is called the socialization. Moreover, this awareness is considered as a tacit knowledge so it can be imparted to the general public by distributing some educational materials and starting some training programmes that provide heuristic lessons to the public. As a result, the people will become aware of the danger of waiting too long before calling the GP and how it may affect their health. The disqualifications of the GP to make the right decision at the right time could be the result of the lack of education or the lack of training and experience. To overcome the problems related to poor diagnosis of the GP the EMS organisation needs to recruit more experienced and qualified GP staff or train existing GP by arranging different work shops and seminars where the GP could be further educated through the exchange of experience between the staff. The third problem identified during analysis was the treatment delay. In the treatment delay another 25 minutes are wasted before treating the patient after arrival and diagnosis at the hospital unless the patient is diagnosed to have AMI. The reason of this delay can be associated with the relationship between the paramedic and the doctor. As mentioned before, the system of government in Netherlands is a monarchy system. This system is covering all the levels of governmental organisations where the paramedic level comes under the GP level. As a result of this structure, the paramedic examines the patient before the GP as he was with the patient in the ambulance before reaching the hospital. The GP should listen to the paramedic’s account of patient condition and involve the paramedic in making the treatment decision regarding the patient. To find a solution to this problem the system of dealing with the levels in hierarchical structure must be changed. For example, the EMS should implement the federalism system which involves representative democracy which would help in eradicating the problems faced due to a weak central government and a high level of local autonomy (Davenport & Prusak 1997). Conclusion Therefore after conducting the above reflection on my previous assignment and performing social analysis I find myself better acquainted with the common KADS methodology. It is a worthy tool in analysing and resolving the problems of any organization. As in the case of Emergency Medical Service (EMS) this tool was helpful in identifying the major delay problems faced by the patients and provided many alternative solutions for the betterment of EMS service available for the patients.