Prehospital emergency care : official journal of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the National Association of State EMS Directors
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Responses for "lift assists" (LAs) are common in many emergency medical services (EMS) systems, and result when a person dials 9-1-1 because of an inability to get up, is subsequently determined to be uninjured, and is not transported for further medical attention. Although LAs often involve recurrent calls and are generally not reimbursable, little is known of their operational effects on EMS systems. We hypothesized that LAs present an opportunity for earlier treatment of subtle-onset medical conditions and injury prevention interventions in a population at high risk for falls. Objectives. To quantify LA calls in one community, describe EMS returns to the same address within 30 days following an index LA call, and characterize utilization of EMS by LA patients. ⋯ Lift-assist calls are associated with substantial subsequent utilization of EMS, and should trigger fall prevention and other safety interventions. Based on our data, these calls may be early indicators of medical problems that require more aggressive evaluation.
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Review Case Reports
Successful administration of intranasal glucagon in the out-of-hospital environment.
We present a case of successful prehospital treatment of hypoglycemia with intranasal (IN) glucagon. Episodes of hypoglycemia can be of varying severity and often requires quick reversal to prevent alteration in mental status or hypoglycemic coma. Glucagon has been shown to be as effective as glucose for the treatment of hypoglycemia. ⋯ Intranasal administration of glucagon has been shown to be as effective as the IV route and may be used for rapid correction of hypoglycemic episodes where IV access is difficult or unavailable and IM administration is undesirable. We describe the first documentation in the peer-reviewed literature of the successful treatment and reversal of an insulin-induced hypoglycemic episode with IN glucagon in the prehospital setting. We also present a review of the literature regarding this novel medication administration route.
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Intravenous (IV) line placement is an important prehospital advanced life support skill, but IV success rates are variable among providers. Little is known about what factors are associated with successful IV placement, limiting the ability to develop benchmarks for skill maintenance, such as requiring a specific number of IV placements per year. ⋯ In this retrospective study, larger IV catheter size, but not the prehospital providers' previous year's experience, was associated with successful IV placement in adult patients. These data fail to support requirements for a minimum number of yearly IV placements by full-time paramedics to improve success rates.
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The choice of the optimal benzodiazepine to treat prehospital status epilepticus is unclear. Lorazepam is preferred in the emergency department, but concerns about nonrefrigerated storage limits emergency medical services (EMS) use. Midazolam is increasingly popular, but its heat stability is undocumented. ⋯ Lorazepam experiences small but statistically significant temperature-dependent degradation after 60 days in the EMS environment. Additional study is needed to evaluate whether clinically significant deterioration occurs after 60 days. Midazolam shows no degradation over this duration, even in high-heat conditions.
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The aim of this study was to develop and critically appraise a global rating scale (GRS) for the assessment of individual paramedic clinical competence at the entry-to-practice level. ⋯ The results of this study provide evidence that the scores generated using this scale can be valid for the purpose of making decisions regarding paramedic clinical competence.