Prehospital and disaster medicine
-
Prehosp Disaster Med · Sep 2008
Characteristics of emergency medical technicians involved in ambulance crashes.
This study utilizes a [US] national sample of emergency medical services (EMS) professionals to explore the hypothesis that demographic and work-related characteristics are associated with involvement in ambulance crashes. ⋯ Results from this analysis suggest age and sleep problems are associated with involvement in an ambulance crash. Future studies should investigate interventions to minimize the effects of these associations.
-
Prehosp Disaster Med · Sep 2008
Profile of emergency medical dispatch calls for breathing problems within the medical priority dispatch system protocol.
A common chief complaint to emergency dispatch communication centers worldwide is "breathing problems". The chief complaint of breathing problems represents a wide spectrum of underlying diseases, patient conditions, and onset types. The current debate is on the potential ability of a dispatch protocol to safely and with high specificity, differentiate patients with minor or non-critical conditions from those conditions that pose risk to the patient and require advanced life support evaluation and care. This issue also has extended into the paramedic prehospital evaluation realm. ⋯ The MPDS coding yielded a richer mix of severe outcomes in the higher priority levels.The Severe Respiratory Distress coding had the greatest number of patients and severe outcomes. Future studies that help refine the Severe Respiratory Distress code in the MPDS by more specific subgroups of patients would be beneficial.
-
Prehosp Disaster Med · Sep 2008
Revisiting blood transfusion preparedness: experience from the Bam earthquake response.
Blood transfusion plays a critical role in the provision of medical care for disasters due to man-made and natural hazards. Although the short-term increase in blood donations following national disasters is well-documented, some aspects of blood transfusion during disasters remain under study. The 2003 earthquake in Bam, Iran resulted in the death of >29,000 people and injured 23,000. ⋯ Kerman Province, the site of the disaster, received 1,231 (1.3%) of the donated units in the first four days after the disaster. The Bam experience revealed crucial missteps in the development of a post-event strategy for blood product management, and led to the development of a detailed disaster preparedness and response plan that addresses issues of donation, distribution, communication, transportation, and coordination. The current plan requires the Iranian Blood Transfusion Organization to convene a disaster task force immediately as the main coordinator of all disaster preparedness and response activities.