Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Comparative Study
Inappropriate use of emergency medical services transport: comparison of provider and patient perspectives.
To determine the extent of inappropriate ambulance use from the perspectives of both emergency medical services (EMS) providers and patients utilizing EMS transport, assess level of agreement, and identify variables associated with inappropriate ambulance use. ⋯ Inappropriate ambulance use is a significant problem from both EMS provider and patient perspectives. Certain patient characteristics are associated with a higher probability of appropriate and inappropriate uses of EMS transport. A large number of patients transported by ambulance have alternative means of transportation but elect not to use them.
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To describe interobserver variability among emergency medicine (EM) faculty when using global assessment (GA) rating scales and performance-based criterion (PBC) checklists to evaluate EM residents' clinical skills during standardized patient (SP) encounters. ⋯ When EM faculty evaluate clinical performance of EM residents during videotaped SP encounters, interobserver variabilities are similar, whether a PBC checklist or a GA rating scale is used.
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Emergency medical services (EMS) occupy a unique position in the continuum of emergency health care delivery. The role of EMS personnel is expanding beyond their traditional identity as out-of-hospital care providers, to include participation and active leadership in EMS administration, education, and research. With these roles come new challenges, as well as new responsibilities. This paper was developed by the SAEM EMS Task Force and provides a discussion of these new concepts as well as recommendations for the specialty of emergency medicine to foster the continued development of all of the potentials of EMS.