Prehospital emergency care : official journal of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the National Association of State EMS Directors
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Review Meta Analysis
A meta-analysis of prehospital care times for trauma.
Time to definitive care is a major determinant of trauma patient outcomes yet little is empirically known about prehospital times at the national level. We sought to determine national averages for prehospital times based on a systematic review of published literature. ⋯ Despite the emphasis on time in the prehospital and trauma literature there has been no national effort to empirically define average prehospital time intervals for trauma patients. We provide points of reference for prehospital intervals so that policymakers can compare individual emergency medical systems to national norms.
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Airway management, including endotracheal intubation, is considered one of the most important aspects of prehospital medical care. This concept paper proposes a systematic algorithm for performing prehospital airway management. The algorithm may be valuable as a tool for ensuring patient safety and reducing errors as well as for training rescuers in airway management.
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This article describes emergency medical services (EMS) systems in Connecticut, beginning with a historical perspective. The discussion of statewide oversight of the EMS system includes legislative and regulatory mandates as well as recent external reviews of the system. ⋯ Most of the 169 cities and towns in the State maintain or contract for local EMS, and have traditionally resisted regionalization. This snapshot of the EMS system in Connecticut can serve as a reference for comparison of EMS systems in other jurisdictions.
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Review Practice Guideline Guideline
High-dose steroids for acute spinal cord injury in emergency medical services.
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Helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) and its possible association with outcomes improvement continues to be a subject of debate. As is the case with other scientific endeavors, debate over HEMS usefulness should be framed around an evidence-based assessment of the relevant literature. ⋯ As a result of that work, two review articles-one covering HEMS use in nontrauma and the other in trauma-published in 2002 in Prehospital Emergency Care surveyed HEMS outcomes-related literature published between 1980 and mid-2000. Given the broad interest in the earlier reviews, and the increasing rate of publication of HEMS studies, the current project was executed with the intent of updating the annotated HEMS outcomes-related bibliography, covering a three-year time interval (through 2003) since the prior reviews.