Prehospital emergency care : official journal of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the National Association of State EMS Directors
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Comparative Study
Acceptability of Alternatives to Traditional Emergency Care: Patient Characteristics, Alternate Transport Modes, and Alternate Destinations.
To determine the acceptability of alternatives to traditional emergency care, we assessed the proportion of subjects willing to consider alternative modes of transportation and alternative destinations. We further identified patient characteristics associated with willingness to consider these alternatives. We conducted a cross-sectional survey study in the emergency department (ED) of an academic medical center. ⋯ In our ED, some patients found alternative transport modes and alternative destinations acceptable. We identified patient-level characteristics associated with willingness to accept alternatives; however, the predictive ability and clinical utility of these factors is limited. Future research should further explore the acceptability and effectiveness of these alternative care delivery options.
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Comparative Study
Post-medication Hypotension after Administration of Sedatives and Opioids during Critical Care Transport.
Identification of modifiable risk factors for hypotension during critical care transport is important to optimize patient preparation, crew training, and patient safety. We set out to determine the incidence of hemodynamic deterioration after administration of opioids or sedatives during critical care transport, and identify patient- and transport-level predictors. ⋯ Post-medication hypotension occurred once in every 160 drug administrations and was associated with mechanical ventilation, baseline hemodynamic instability, transport duration, surgical diagnosis, and ACP crew. These findings provide targets for improvements in patient preparation, crew training, and clinical practices.
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Abstract Objective: Air medical transport (AMT) teams play an essential role in the care of the critically ill and injured. Their work, however, is not without risk. Since the inception of the industry numerous AMT accidents have been reported. ⋯ Conclusion: Planning for AMT post-accident response was identified to be lacking in scope and quality. More focused efforts are needed to assist and support the survivors as they regain both their personal and professional lives following the accident. This planning should include all stakeholders in safe transport; the individual crewmember, air medical transport companies, and the industry at large.
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This study has two aims: 1) to describe linkage rates between ambulance data and external datasets for "episodes of care" and "patient only" linkages in New South Wales (NSW), Australia; and 2) to detect and report any systematic issues with linkage that relate to patients, and operational or clinical variables that may introduce bias in subsequent studies if not adequately addressed. During 2010-11, the Centre for Health Record Linkage (CHeReL) in NSW, linked the records for patients attended by NSW Ambulance paramedics for the period July 2006 to June 2009, with four external datasets: Emergency Department Data Collection; Admitted Patient Data Collection; NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages death registration data; and the Australian Bureau of Statistics mortality data. This study reports linkage rates in terms of those "expected" to link and those who were "not expected" to link with external databases within 24 hours of paramedic attendance. ⋯ For NSW Ambulance episodes of care that were expected to link to an external dataset but did not, nonlinkage to hospital admission records tended to decrease with age. For all other variables, issues relating to rates of linkage and nonlinkage were more indiscriminate. This quantification of the limitations of this large linked dataset will underpin the interpretation and results of ensuing studies that will inform future clinical and operational policies and practices at NSW Ambulance.
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Early, high-quality, minimally interrupted bystander cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (BCPR) is essential for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival. However, rates of bystander intervention remain low in many geographic areas. Community CPR programs have been initiated to combat these low numbers by teaching compression-only CPR to laypersons. This study examined bystander CPR and the cost-effectiveness of a countywide CPR program to improve out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival. ⋯ Cost-effectiveness analysis demonstrates that a community CPR outreach program is a cost-effective means for saving lives when compared to other healthcare-related interventions. Bystander CPR showed a clear trend toward improving the neurologic outcome of survivors. The findings of this study indicate a need for additional research into the economic effects of bystander CPR.