Prehospital care is important in improving outcomes for patients because it ensures that especially those requiring acute care have access to healthcare facilities, in a manner that is timely, fast, and reliable. A hospital might have the best facilities, but if the acute patient cannot make it on time, then the best facilities might not be useful at all for the patient. There are many factors in effective pre-hospital care. Some factors include a reliable communication system from the location of the patient to the hospital and ambulance. Another factor is the knowledge of what a bystander must do in an event he/she witnesses an emergency.
In the documentary, barriers to effective pre-hospital care in the rural setting include the following: geographical barriers, extreme weather conditions, communication challenges (e.g. lack of cellphones), difficulty recruiting health personnel, and patient tracking. (Reference: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK201058/) Another barrier evident in the documentary is the absence of transportation services, roads, and distance to healthcare facilities.