Prehospital emergency care : official journal of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the National Association of State EMS Directors
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We sought to develop a reliable and valid tool for measuring teamwork among emergency medical technician (EMT) partnerships. ⋯ We developed a reliable and valid survey to evaluate teamwork between EMT partners.
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Air medical transport provides rapid transport to definitive care. Overtriage and the expense and risk of transport may offset survival benefits. ⋯ Very few prehospital criteria were associated with clinically important outcomes in helicopter-transported patients. Evidence-based guidelines for the most appropriate utilization of air medical transport need to be further evaluated and developed for injured patients.
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Occupational injuries are an important source of morbidity for emergency medical services (EMS) providers. Previous work has shown that employee perceptions of an organization's commitment to safety (i.e., safety climate) correlate with adherence to safe practices. ⋯ EMS workers perceiving a high degree of perceived safety climate was associated with twofold greater odds of self-reported level of strict adherence to safe work practices. Frequent safety-related feedback/training was the one dimension of safety climate that had the strongest association with adherence to safe workplace behaviors.
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Preventable harm from medical care has been extensively documented in the inpatient setting. Emergency medical services (EMS) providers care for patients in dynamic and challenging environments; prehospital emergency care is a field that represents an area of high risk for errors and harm, but has received relatively little attention in the patient safety literature. ⋯ We found a paucity of scientific literature exploring patient safety in EMS. Research is needed to improve our understanding of problem magnitude and threats to patient safety and to guide interventions.
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To determine the association between poor sleep quality, fatigue, and self-reported safety outcomes among emergency medical services (EMS) workers. ⋯ In this sample of EMS workers, poor sleep quality and fatigue are common. We provide preliminary evidence of an association between sleep quality, fatigue, and safety outcomes.