Prehospital emergency care : official journal of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the National Association of State EMS Directors
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The authors sought to determine if the availability of an after-hours on-call emergency physician by telephone for consultation to the staff at a county jail would safely reduce ambulance emergency department (ED) transport of inmates in the community. ⋯ The initiation of an on-call emergency physician program for after-hours consultation to jail nursing and law enforcement staff safely reduced ambulance transports from a county jail with no adverse outcomes identified.
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Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) improves survival. The authors attempted to determine whether the rates at which CPR is performed differ when a cardiac arrest is witnessed by someone known or unknown to the victim. ⋯ Victims of cardiac arrest are more likely to receive CPR when the event is witnessed by bystanders unknown to the victim than if the arrest is witnessed by friends or family.
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To prospectively determine if on-site physicians at a mass gathering reduced the number of ambulance transports to local medical facilities. The authors also wished to determine the level of care provider (emergency medical technician, EMT-P, registered nurse, or medical doctor) required to treat and disposition each patient. ⋯ On-site physician-level medical care at large mass gatherings significantly reduces the number of patients requiring transport to hospitals, thus reducing the impact on the local EMS system and surrounding medical facilities.
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Many emergency departments (EDs) receive patients from concert or other mass gathering events. The study objective was to determine whether routine emergency medical services (EMS) transport to a hospital from an indoor arena facility is warranted. ⋯ Patients transported from indoor arena events rarely result in inpatient admissions. Alcohol- and drug-related problems were the primary diagnoses in 31% of these patients and required the most time in the ED. Rock concerts had more alcohol and drug cases than other events.
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In December 1999, a group of emergency physicians from the United States, Israel, and Ethiopia met for the Second Annual Symposium on Emergency Medicine and to perform an initial evaluation of the prehospital care system in Addis Ababa. The symposium was structured into a workshop on prehospital care and a clinical seminar for emergency medicine providers. ⋯ The authors present a list of priorities for the development of an emergency medical services (EMS) system for Addis Ababa that was generated in partnership with local government and the World Health Organization. The article contrasts these initial recommendations with those found in the literature on the development of EMS systems in developing nations.