Where are you? The problem of locating the patient in an emergency

Rapid response to an emergency call is crucial to its outcome, but little is known about the determinants of response time. Using a difference-in-differences strategy, it is shown that the time it takes to find the patient's location accounts for 30% of response time. The analysis compares the time required to cover each segment of the ambulance trip - from the hospital to the patient's location and then back to the hospital - according to whether the patient is at home or at some other location that responders can more easily locate. The magnitude of the effect does not appear to be affected by the distance traveled. It is suggested that introducing a technology that gives care providers precise information about a patient's location would substantially improve performance at a minimal cost.