A Sustainable Ambulance Operation Model in a Low-Resource Country (the Democratic Republic of Congo)

Due to an increase in trafc collisions, the demand for prehospital medical services is on the rise, even in low-resource countries where emergency ambulance services have not been previously provided. To build a sustainable and continuous prehospital ambulance operation model, it is necessary to consider the medical system and economic conditions of the corresponding country. In an attempt to construct a prehospital ambulance operation model that ensures continuous operation, a pilot “emergency patient transporting service from feld to hospital” operation was established for approximately three months in Kinshasa, the capital of the DR Congo. To construct a continuously operating model even afer the pilot operation, willingness to pay (WTP) by type of emergency medical and transport service was investigated by implementing the contingent valuation method (CVM). Using CVM, the WTP for prehospital emergency services targeting ambulance services personnel, patients, policemen, and hospital staf participating in the pilot operation was calculated. Te results of the pilot operation revealed that there were a total of 212 patients with a mean patient number of 2.4 per day. A total of 155 patients used the services for hospital transport, while 121 patients used the services for trafc collisions. Trafc collisions were the category in which ambulance services were most frequently needed (66.2%). Pay services were most frequently utilized in the home-visit services category (40.9%). Based on these results, eight independently operated ambulance operation models and sixteen models that utilize hospital medical personnel and policemen already belonging to existing institutions were proposed. In an efort to implement emergency medical ambulance services in the DR Congo, medical staf receiving pay for performance (incentive pay) should be deployed in the feld and on call. Accordingly, with respect to sustainable development goals, various pay-for-service models should be used.