Air medical journal
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Air medical journal · Nov 2013
Assessing satisfaction and quality in the EMS/HEMS working relationship.
Treatment provided to critically ill and injured patients during air medical transport bridges initial local emergency medical service (EMS) treatment and the care provided upon arrival to the emergency department. Transition of care from EMS to air medical service includes multiple elements, many of which have been previously undefined. These include operational details surrounding the handoff and attention to issues of continuity in patient care. The purpose of this study is to pilot the development of survey instrumentation to measure key elements of quality in the interaction between EMS and air medical crews. ⋯ Using qualitative and quantitative approaches, a survey instrument was developed to assess satisfaction with HEMS care from the EMS provider's perspective. Evaluating the EMS perspective on the working relationship with HEMS is a new field of discovery for the air medical transport industry and process improvement activities.
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Air medical journal · Nov 2013
Activation intervals for a helicopter emergency medical service in Japan.
Prehospital time is crucial for treating acute disease; therefore, it is important to activate helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) promptly. We investigated the differences in the activation intervals (the time elapsed from receiving the emergency call to the time of HEMS request) under various conditions to evaluate the current status of HEMS-related prehospital triage in Japan. ⋯ Endogenous conditions had longer activation intervals, which may reflect a lack of mechanisms assessing their severity. We are considering developing new triage criteria for dispatchers.