Agency response priority code | Definition8 | Target response times (90th percentile) | Example of MPDS determinant |
Code 1 | A time-critical (urgent) case | 13 minutes9 | All delta, eg chest pain associated with severe respiratory distress (10D1) |
Code 2 | Acute non-time-critical (non-urgent) case | 25 minutes | Charlie and bravo, some alpha, eg, headache, sudden onset of severe pain (18C4) |
Code 3 | Non-acute or routine case | 60 minutes | Mostly alpha, eg, sick person no priority symptoms (26A1) |
For the purposes of analysis, pain severity was collated into four categories (see table 2). MPDS, medical priority dispatch system.