ORCON

WikiDoc Resources for ORCON
Articles
Most recent articles on ORCON Most cited articles on ORCON Review articles on ORCON Articles on ORCON in N Eng J Med, Lancet, BMJ
Media
Powerpoint slides on ORCON Images of ORCON Photos of ORCON Podcasts & MP3s on ORCON Videos on ORCON
Evidence Based Medicine
Cochrane Collaboration on ORCON Bandolier on ORCON TRIP on ORCON
Clinical Trials
Ongoing Trials on ORCON at Clinical Trials.gov Trial results on ORCON Clinical Trials on ORCON at Google
Guidelines / Policies / Govt
US National Guidelines Clearinghouse on ORCON NICE Guidance on ORCON NHS PRODIGY Guidance FDA on ORCON CDC on ORCON
Books
Books on ORCON
News
ORCON in the news Be alerted to news on ORCON News trends on ORCON
Commentary
Blogs on ORCON
Definitions
Definitions of ORCON
Patient Resources / Community
Patient resources on ORCON Discussion groups on ORCON Patient Handouts on ORCON Directions to Hospitals Treating ORCON Risk calculators and risk factors for ORCON
Healthcare Provider Resources
Symptoms of ORCON Causes & Risk Factors for ORCON Diagnostic studies for ORCON Treatment of ORCON
Continuing Medical Education (CME)
CME Programs on ORCON
International
ORCON en Espanol ORCON en Francais
Business
ORCON in the Marketplace Patents on ORCON
Experimental / Informatics
List of terms related to ORCON

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

ORCON (Operational Research CONsultancy) was developed by a UK consultancy company in 1974 as a standard for monitoring ambulance service performance.

The standard was later adopted internationally by a number of different countries including the Australian ambulance service.

ORCON standards are monitored through key performance indicators.

• Activation - All calls should have an ambulance 'activated' within 3 minutes of the phone being answered. This is usually made up of the control room tasking the crew within one minute, and the crew having a further 2 minutes to be 'on the road'. This is supposed to be achieved with 95% of calls.
• Category A calls, which are calls designated by AMPDS as being immediately life threatening. 75% of calls should receive an initial response within eight minutes (of the operator answering the call) and 95% of calls should receive an initial response within 19 minutes. The performance indicator generated by the ambulance service is expressed as a percentage of how many calls meet this.
• Category B are calls which are designated by AMPDS as being serious, but not immediately life threatening. 95% of calls should receive an initial response within 19 minutes. The performance indicator generated by the ambulance service is expressed as a percentage of how many calls meet this.

The distinction between urban/rural services ceased on 1 April 2006. Previously 95% of incidents had to be responded to within 14 minutes in urban services or 19 minutes in rural services. All services are now subject to the same response time requirements of 19 minutes.