Articles: emergency-medical-services.
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Pediatric emergency care · Feb 1992
Comparative StudyPediatric EMS transport: are we treating children in a system designed for adults only?
Unlike adults, small children and infants do not require stretchers or ambulances for transport from a prehospital scene to the emergency department (ED). This study was designed to determine the importance of this difference in patient transport needs. ⋯ Utilizing this model, police transports demonstrate shorter TTIs for brief scene-to-ED travel times or limited paramedic success rates, while paramedic intubations produced shorter TTIs for long scene-to-ED transports. These results suggest that nonambulance transport of pediatric patients be considered in the development of urban or suburban pediatric Emergency Medical Services.
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Prehospital pediatric trauma care is an important part of the EMS system. Review of 458 pediatric ALS trauma responses over two years treated in an urban, tiered ALS system revealed a male predominance. ⋯ ALS procedure success rates and field times reported here are lower than previously described. Benchmark standards for the prehospital care of pediatric trauma are proposed.
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To provide up-to-date practical information, relevant to Australian conditions and practice, on stabilising the condition of critically ill children who need transport to a paediatric hospital. ⋯ A recent study found that 47% of 100 children who needed emergency interhospital transfer experienced problems which should have been preventable by greater availability to referring doctors of information on pretransport stabilisation of critically ill children. Hypoventilation, hypoxaemia and hypotension are commonly found in critically ill children before transport, as are difficulties with endotracheal tube care, sedation and analgesia. Mild physiological disturbances are likely to become severe and life-threatening during transfer unless they are corrected before departure. Early discussion of the child's problems and the transfer plan with senior staff at the nearest paediatric intensive care unit may be helpful in planning the pre-transfer resuscitation.