• Edmond A Hooker, Taylor Benoit, and Timothy G Price.
• Department of Health Services Administration, Xavier University, 3800 Victory Parkway, Cincinnati, Ohio 45207-7331, USA. ehooker@fuse.net
• Prehosp Disaster Med. 2006 Mar 1;21(2):101-3.

IntroductionAspirin is administered to patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACSs), but prehospital providers do not administer aspirin to all patients with chest pain that could be secondary to an ACS.ObjectiveTo identify reasons prehospital providers fail to administer aspirin to all patients complaining of chest pain.MethodsA convenience sample of prehospital providers was surveyed as they transported patients with a chief complaint of chest pain to the emergency department. The providers were asked if they had given aspirin, nitroglycerin, or oxygen, or if they utilized a monitor. If the medications had not been administered, the paramedic was asked about the reason. The patient's age and previous cardiac history also was recorded.ResultsA total of 52 patients with chest pain who were transported were identified over eight weeks, and all of the providers agreed to participate in the study. Only 13 of the patients (25%) received aspirin. Reasons given for not administering aspirin to the other 39 patients included: (1) chest pain was not felt to be cardiac in 13 patients (33%); (2) 10 patients already had taken aspirin that day (26%); (3) the medical provider was a basic-level emergency medical technician (EMT)-Basic and could not administer aspirin to six patients (15%); (4) pain subsided prior to arrival of emergency medical services (EMS) in these three patients; and (5) other reasons were provided for the remaining seven patients.ConclusionsThe most common reason that paramedics did not administer aspirin was the paramedic's belief that the chest pain was not of a cardiac nature. Another common reason for not giving aspirin was the inability of EMT-Basic providers to administer aspirin.

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