Prehospital emergency care : official journal of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the National Association of State EMS Directors
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Older adults, those aged 65 and older, frequently require emergency care. However, only limited national data describe the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) care provided to older adults. We sought to determine the characteristics of EMS care provided to older adults in the United States. ⋯ One of every three U.S. EMS emergency responses involves older adults. EMS personnel must be prepared to care for the older patient.
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Multicenter, Prospective Study of Prehospital Administration of Analgesia in the U.S. Combat Theater of Afghanistan.
Published data on prehospital medical care in combat is limited, likely due to the chaotic and unpredictable nature of care under fire and difficulty in documentation There is limited data on how often analgesic agents are administered, which drug are being used, and whether there is an association with injury patterns. ⋯ Patients with penetrating trauma are more likely to receive analgesic agents in the combat prehospital setting. The most common analgesic used was ketamine. Patient ISS was not associated with administration of analgesia. Patients receiving analgesia were more likely to still be hospitalized at 30 days. The prospective nature of this study supports feasibility for future, larger, more comprehensive projects.
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Identifying stroke during a 9-1-1 call is critical to timely prehospital care. However, emergency medical dispatchers (EMDs) recognize stroke in less than half of 9-1-1 calls, potentially due to the words used by callers to communicate stroke signs and symptoms. We hypothesized that callers do not typically use words and phrases considered to be classical descriptors of stroke, such as focal neurologic deficits, but that a mixed-methods approach can identify words and phrases commonly used by 9-1-1 callers to describe acute stroke victims. ⋯ Most 9-1-1 callers used vague, non-specific, or distractor words and phrases and infrequently provide classic stroke descriptions during 9-1-1 calls for stroke. Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies identified similar key words and phrases associated with accurate EMD stroke recognition. This study suggests that tools incorporating commonly used words and phrases could potentially improve EMD stroke recognition.
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Studies done in the 1990's suggested nursing home residents with cardiac arrest had minimal chance of survival and resuscitation was not recommended. More recent studies showed opposing results. In Hong Kong, the proportion of elderly living in the residential care homes for the elderly is increasing. There is no study of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest outcomes in this population. This study aimed at evaluating the prognosis of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest occurring in the residential care homes for the elderly. It is hoped that the findings may inform the local emergency medical service concerning the issue of futility of resuscitating the residents with cardiac arrest in the residential care homes. ⋯ Elderly suffering from cardiac arrest in residential care homes had a poor chance of survival. Except age, witnessed arrest, bystander defibrillation, and call to ED interval are modifiable predictors of survival. It is inappropriate to declare that resuscitating elderly in residential care homes is futile unless those factors have been fully addressed.