Prehospital emergency care : official journal of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the National Association of State EMS Directors
-
The management of acute traumatic pain is a crucial component of prehospital care and yet the assessment and administration of analgesia is highly variable, frequently suboptimal, and often determined by consensus-based regional protocols. ⋯ GRADE methodology was used to develop an evidence-based guideline for prehospital analgesia in trauma. The panel issued four strong recommendations regarding patient assessment and narcotic medication dosing. Future research should define optimal approaches for implementation of the guideline as well as the impact of the protocol on safety and effectiveness metrics.
-
Decisions about the transportation of trauma patients by helicopter are often not well informed by research assessing the risks, benefits, and costs of such transport. ⋯ Systematic and transparent methodology was used to develop an evidence-based guideline for the transportation of prehospital trauma patients. The recommendations provide specific guidance regarding the activation of GEMS and HEMS for patients of varying acuity. Future research is required to strengthen the data and recommendations, define optimal approaches for guideline implementation, and determine the impact of implementation on safety and outcomes including cost.
-
Multicenter Study
Characteristics of the Pediatric Patients Treated by the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network's Affiliated EMS Agencies.
To describe pediatric patients transported by the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network's (PECARN's) affiliated emergency medical service (EMS) agencies and the process of submitting and aggregating data from diverse agencies. ⋯ Despite advances in data definitions and increased use of electronic databases nationally, data aggregation across EMS agencies was challenging, in part due to variable data collection methods and missing data. In our sample, only a small proportion of pediatric EMS patients required prehospital medications or interventions.
-
Multicenter Study
Do Prolonged Primary Transport Times for Traumatic Brain Injury Patients Result in Deteriorating Physiology? A Cohort Study.
Recent interest has focused on reorganizing emergency medical services (EMS) for traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients, with bypass of nonspecialist hospitals and direct transportation to distant neuroscience centers. Although this could expedite neurosurgery and neurocritical care, deteriorating physiology could be deleterious. ⋯ The similarity between prehospital and ED vital signs, and lack of association between EMS interval and physiological deterioration, may support a strategy of direct transportation of TBI cases to specialist centers. Further research is necessary to identify patients at risk from deterioration during bypass and to investigate effects on mortality.
-
In 2008, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration funded the development of a model process for the development and implementation of evidence-based guidelines (EBGs) for emergency medical services (EMS). We report on the implementation and evaluation of an evidence-based prehospital pain management protocol developed using this model process. ⋯ We demonstrated that the implementation of a revised statewide prehospital pain management protocol based on an EBG developed using the National Prehospital Evidence-based Guideline Model Process was associated with an increase in dosing of narcotic pain medication consistent with that recommended by the EBG. No differences were seen in the percentage of patients receiving opiate analgesia or in the documentation of pain scores.