Prehospital emergency care : official journal of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the National Association of State EMS Directors
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Case Reports
A Novel Approach to Improve Time to First Shock in Prehospital STEMI Complicated by Ventricular Fibrillation.
Lethal cardiac arrhythmias such as ventricular fibrillation and pulseless ventricular tachycardia (VF/pVT) complicate up to 6% of all out-of-hospital STEMIs. Typically, paramedics respond to this by applying defibrillation pads and delivering a shock as soon as possible. A recently introduced "pads-on" protocol directed paramedics to apply defibrillation pads to all STEMI patients (regardless of clinical stability) with the aim of decreasing time to first shock. ⋯ An important difference in the time to first shock is noted between the two patients with STEMI complicated by VF. While it took 2 min 43 s for the pads-off patient to be defibrillated, only 27 s elapsed before the pads-on patient was defibrillated. These two cases demonstrate that the application of defibrillation pads immediately following the diagnosis of prehospital STEMI has the potential to decrease the time to shock in patients suffering VF/pVT.
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In addition to life-saving interventions, the assessment of pain and subsequent administration of analgesia are primary benchmarks for quality emergency medical services care which should be documented and analyzed. Analyze US combat casualty data from the Department of Defense Trauma Registry (DoDTR) with a primary focus on prehospital pain assessment, analgesic administration and documentation. Retrospective cohort study of battlefield prehospital and hospital casualty data were abstracted by DoDTR from available records from 1 September 2007 through 30 June 2011. ⋯ Our study demonstrates that prehospital pain assessment, management, and documentation remain primary targets for performance improvement on the battlefield. Results of paired prehospital to hospital pain scores and time-series analysis demonstrate both feasibility and benefit of prehospital analgesics. Future efforts must also include an expansion of the prehospital battlefield analgesic formulary.
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Remote ischemic peri-conditioning (RIPC) has gained interest as a means of reducing ischemic injury in patients with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) who are undergoing emergent primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI). We aimed to evaluate the feasibility, process, and patient-related factors related to the delivery of RIPC during air medical transport of STEMI patients to tertiary pPCI centers. We performed a retrospective review of procedural outcomes of a cohort of STEMI patients who received RIPC as part of a clinical protocol in a multi-state air medical service over 16 months (March 2013 to June 2014). ⋯ RIPC is feasible and safe to implement for STEMI patients undergoing air medical transport for pPCI, without occurrence of prolonged bedside times. The incidence of excessive RIPC-related discomfort or hemodynamic instability is rare. STEMI patients requiring on average >30 minutes transport for pPCI may be the ideal group for RIPC utilization.
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To compare system and clinical outcomes before and after an extended care paramedic (ECP) program was implemented to better address the emergency needs of long-term care (LTC) residents. Data were collected from emergency medical services (EMS), hospital, and ten LTC facility charts for two five-month time periods, before and after ECP implementation. Outcomes include: number of EMS patients transported to emergency department (ED) and several clinical, safety, and system secondary outcomes. ⋯ Reductions were observed in the number of LTC patients transported to the ED when the ECP program was introduced, with fewer patients admitted to the hospital. EMS calls take longer with ECP involved. The addition of ECP to the LTC model of care appears to be beneficial and safe, with few relapse calls identified.
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Growing rates of opioid abuse and overdose throughout the nation have lead some community organizations to develop naloxone administration programs. ⋯ This article presents case descriptions demonstrating the feasibility and safety of law enforcement naloxone programs.