European journal of emergency medicine : official journal of the European Society for Emergency Medicine
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Multicenter Study
Capability of Scottish emergency departments to provide physician-based prehospital critical care teams: a national survey.
The aim of this study was to establish the current capabilities of emergency departments in Scotland to provide a prehospital medical team at the request of the ambulance service. ⋯ The majority of emergency departments in Scotland are able to provide a prehospital team on the request of the ambulance service. There is high variability in the composition and seniority of the team, with less ability to provide a team out of hours. With two notable exceptions, the overall activation of these prehospital teams is infrequent, and there are significant improvements required with regard to the clinical governance surrounding the provision of these teams.