Los servicios de emergencias médicas en el Ecuador: Una tarea pendiente.

Abstract

Pre-hospital care is a relatively new discipline within the field of medicine. However, it is becoming one of the most complex and important areas for the management of acute pathology. Pre-hospital services do not currently fit a unique model because they must meet countries’ specific needs. The inadequate replication of a specific model could lead to failure of these services, causing inefficient and inaccurate management of time-dependent pathologies. In Ecuador, the development of pre-hospital emergency medical care has been uneven. Attempts to organize services have not been successful. A national program for emergency care is currently being implemented that aims to achieve coordination among institutions. However, there are still problems related to organizational structure, which we discuss in this paper.