• Anssi Saviluoto, Päivi Laukkanen-Nevala, Lasse Raatiniemi, Helena Jäntti, and Jouni O Nurmi.
• From the Research and Development Unit, FinnHEMS, Vantaa (AS, PL-N, JON), University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio (AS), Centre for Prehospital Emergency Care, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu (LR), Research group of anaesthesiology, MRC Oulu, (LR), Kuopio University Hospital, Center for Prehospital Emergency Care, Kuopio (HJ) and Emergency Medicine and Services, Helsinki University Hospital and Emergency Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland (JON).
• Eur J Anaesthesiol. 2021 Jun 1; 38 (6): 644-651.

BackgroundIt is largely unknown how often physicians in emergency helicopter medical services (HEMS) encounter various critical care events and if HEMS exposure is associated with particular practice patterns or outcomes.ObjectivesThis study aimed: to describe the frequency and distribution of critical care events; to investigate whether HEMS exposure is associated with differences in practice patterns and determine if HEMS exposure factors are associated with mortality.DesignA retrospective registry-based study.SettingPhysician-staffed HEMS in Finland between January 2012 and August 2019.ParticipantsNinety-four physicians who worked at least 6 months in the HEMS during the study period. Physicians with undeterminable HEMS exposure were excluded from practice pattern comparisons and mortality analysis, leaving 80 physicians.Main Outcome MeasuresThe primary outcome measure was a physician's average annual frequencies for operational events and clinical interventions. Our secondary outcomes were the proportion of missions cancelled or denied, time onsite (OST) and proportion of unconscious patients intubated. Our tertiary outcome was adjusted 30-day mortality of patients.ResultsThe physicians encountered 62 [33 to 98], escorted 31 [17 to 41] and transported by helicopter 2.1 [1.3 to 3.5] patients annually, given as median [interquartile range; IQR]. Rapid sequence intubation was performed 11 [6.2 to 16] times per year. Physicians were involved in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) 10 [5.9 to 14] and postresuscitation care 5.5 [3.1 to 8.1] times per year. Physicians with longer patient intervals had shorter times onsite. Proportionally, they cancelled more missions and intubated fewer unconscious patients. A short patient interval [odds ratio (OR); 95% confidence interval (CI)] was associated with decreased mortality (0.87; 95% CI, 0.76 to1.00), whereas no association was observed between mortality and HEMS career length.ConclusionPrehospital exposure is distributed unevenly, and some physicians receive limited exposure to prehospital critical care. This seems to be associated with differences in practice patterns. Rare HEMS patient contacts may be associated with increased mortality.Copyright © 2021 European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.

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