Prehospital emergency care : official journal of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the National Association of State EMS Directors
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A single dose epinephrine protocol (SDEP) for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) achieves similar survival to hospital discharge (SHD) rates as a multidose epinephrine protocol (MDEP). However, it is unknown if a SDEP improves SHD rates among patients with a shockable rhythm or those receiving bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). ⋯ Adjusting for confounders, the SDEP increased SHD in patients who received bystander CPR and there was a significant interaction between SDEP and bystander CPR. Single dose epinephrine protocol and MDEP had similar SHD rates regardless of rhythm type.
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This study sought to evaluate performance indicators to assist a static-based 9-1-1 agency in defining its response efficiency. ⋯ These findings suggest a way to evaluate the efficiency of static-based ambulance deployment and potentially identify strategies for redeployment.
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Background: Children have differing utilization of emergency medical services (EMS) by socioeconomic status. We evaluated differences in prehospital care among children by the Child Opportunity Index (COI), the agreement between a child's COI at the scene and at home, and in-hospital outcomes for children by COI. Methods: We performed a retrospective study of pediatric (<18 years) scene encounters from approximately 2,000 United States EMS agencies from the 2021-2022 ESO Data Collaborative. ⋯ Conclusion: Patterns of EMS utilization among children with prehospital emergencies differ by COI. Some measures, such as for in-hospital mortality, occurred more frequently among children transported from Very Low COI areas, whereas others, such as admission, occurred more frequently among children from Very High COI areas. These findings have implications in EMS planning and in alternative out-of-hospital care models, including in regional placement of ambulance stations.
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Observational Study
Development of a Computable Phenotype for Prehospital Pediatric Asthma Encounters.
Asthma exacerbations are a common cause of pediatric Emergency Medical Services (EMS) encounters. Accordingly, prehospital management of pediatric asthma exacerbations has been designated an EMS research priority. However, accurate identification of pediatric asthma exacerbations from the prehospital record is nuanced and difficult due to the heterogeneity of asthma symptoms, especially in children. Therefore, this study's objective was to develop a prehospital-specific pediatric asthma computable phenotype (CP) that could accurately identify prehospital encounters for pediatric asthma exacerbations. ⋯ We modified existing and developed new pediatric asthma CPs to retrospectively identify prehospital pediatric asthma exacerbation encounters. We found that machine learning-based models greatly outperformed rule-based models. Given the high performance of the machine-learning models, the development and application of machine learning-based CPs for other conditions and diseases could help accelerate EMS research and ultimately enhance clinical care by accurately identifying patients with conditions of interest.
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Critically ill children undergo painful procedures during resuscitation and stabilization before and during interfacility transport. The literature supporting pain management in this unique environment focuses predominantly on isolated traumatic injuries. Timely administration of analgesia can improve patient well-being by attenuating stress responses and reducing severe adverse events. To determine the prevalence of analgesia administration among pediatric patients undergoing mechanical ventilation during transport and to identify associated factors. ⋯ This study's findings highlight the need for improved pain evaluation in caring for mechanically ventilated pediatric patients during transport. Factors such as transport, duration, the reason for transport, pre-transport opiate or ketamine administration, and paralytics increase the likelihood of analgesia administration. At the same time, the presence of comorbidities decreases the likelihood. The study underscores the importance of improved documentation of pain to inform analgesic choices and administration with the ultimate goal of reducing adverse events.