Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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A short cut review was carried out to establish how intra-articular lidocaine compared with intravenous analgesia and sedation during reduction of anterior shoulder dislocations. Altogether 146 papers were found using the reported search, of which three presented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results, and study weaknesses of these best papers are tabulated. A clinical bottom line is stated.
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To develop consensus opinion on future design characteristics of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) systems in the UK with particular regard to advanced life support skills (ALS). ⋯ Senior expert staff from Ambulance Trusts in the UK achieved consensus on certain design characteristics of EMS systems. These are significantly different from the present EMS model.
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In 1999, the Metropolitan Ambulance Service (MAS), Melbourne, Australia began implementing The Emergency Operations Plan (1998). One of the initiatives of the plan was the addition of crews with one advanced paramedic skills (APS) officer and one non-APS officer (mixed crews). All previous APS crews contained two APS officers working together. There was concern that mixed crews would have longer scene times than all-APS crews. This study aims to compare scene times at time critical cases for mixed crews and all-APS crews. ⋯ Mixed crews demonstrated shorter scene times than all-APS crews, although this is unlikely to be clinically significant. The concern that mixed crews would have longer scene time was not substantiated and should not be considered as a barrier to the development of mixed crew staffing models.