Operational Research CONsultancy

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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 14 minutes in urban areas or 19 minutes in rural areas. 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 14 minutes in urban areas, or within 19 minutes in rural areas. The performance indicator generated by the ambulance service is expressed as a percentage of how many calls meet this.

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