A study published in October on the British Medical Journal website compared standard high-flow oxygen treatment to titrated oxygen treatment for patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the prehospital setting.1 Conducted in Australia, the study included 405 presumed COPD patients who were treated by paramedics and transported to a hospital. The […]
This study investigated whether a Six Sigma approach to ED triage could reduce patient waiting times and length of stay. Conducted through the Hashemite University in Zarqa, Jordan, the researchers developed a new approach to ED triage using the Six Sigma principles and then used computer models to track the flow of patients. The study […]
A Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial published Oct. 6 by JAMA involved 114 EMS agencies in the U.S.1 The trial sought to determine whether out-of-hospital administration of hypertonic fluids improves neurologic outcome in patients with traumatic brain injury. Conducted between May 2006 and May 2009, the study included patients age 15 or older […]
A study out of Sweden evaluated the differences between men and women in symptom profile, allocated life support level and presence of acute myocardial infarction, life-threatening condition or death, and whether a computer-based decision support system could improve the allocation of support level.1 The investigators found that ALS was used “equally frequently for men and […]
A five-year prospective observation cohort study in Arizona looked at patients 18 or older with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest between Jan. 1, 2005, and Dec. 31, 2009.1 Of note, beginning in 2005, 30 EMS agencies began participating in a statewide campaign to improve out-of-hospital arrest. By the end of the study, 90 agencies serving approximately 80% […]
A study by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital found disparities in emergency department care provided to chest pain patients.1 The researchers looked at more than 22,000 patients who arrived at an ED with chest pain or related symptoms over a 10-year period. They evaluated whether initial triage plays a role in disparities in care based […]
A RAND Corp. study found that approximately 17% of all visits to EDs across the U.S. could be treated at urgent care centers and retail medical clinics, “potentially saving $4.4 billion annually in health care costs.”1 The study was funded by the California HealthCare Foundation. Researchers compared the profiles of people who visited clinics and […]
Several organizations, including the International Association of Fire Fighters, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the Urban Institute, the EMS Performance Improvement Center, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, collaborated on the Fire Fighter Safety and Deployment Study Report on EMS Field Experiments.1 The report investigates how task completion times for ALS-level incidents […]
“CPR with chest compression alone or with rescue breathing,” published July 29 in the New England Journal of Medicine, sought to determine if dispatcher instructions to bystanders to provide chest compression-only CPR would result in higher survival rates than instruction to provide chest compressions along with rescue breathing.1 There were 1,941 patients included in the […]
Published in the July/September 2010 issue of Prehospital Emergency Care, the “Airway Management Success and Hypoxemia Rates in Air and Ground Critical Care Transport: A Prospective Multicenter Study”–monitored endotracheal intubation attempts, success rates and per-ETI oxygenation by crews from 11 CCT programs with various configuration, locations and case mixes.1 This study was designed to assess […]
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