OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of the decision support tool (DST) on the assessment of the acutely ill or injured out-of-hospital patient. METHODS This study included systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials (RCT) where the DST was compared to usual care in and out of the hospital setting. The databases scanned include: (1) Cochrane Reviews (up to ...

Introduction. Limited evidence is available on simulation training of prehospital care providers, specifically the use of tourniquets and needle decompression. This study focused on whether the confidence level of prehospital personnel performing these skills improved through simulation training. Methods. Prehospital personnel from Alachua County Fire Rescue were enrolled in the study over a 2-...

OBJECTIVES To develop a feasible and safe prehospital decision support system (DSS) for the emergency medical services (EMS), facilitating safe steering of geriatric patients to an optimal level of healthcare. METHODS The development process involves four consecutive steps. The first step was gathering data from patients transported by EMS, with the electronic patient care record, to retrospe...

OBJECTIVE Prehospital delay is the major cause of treatment delay in stroke. This study was conducted to clarify the contribution of specific stroke-related symptoms to prehospital delay. METHODS A consecutive series of 469 patients hospitalized within 2 weeks of stroke onset was collected. In this study, prehospital delay was defined as the time interval from recognition of stroke-related sy...

BACKGROUND The use of emergency services with prehospital stroke assessment and early notification to the treatment hospital (stroke code) is a crucial determinant of delay time for acute stroke treatment. We reviewed and summarized the literature on prehospital stroke code system implementation. METHODS Two databases were explored (last update June 20, 2011) with 3 key words (stroke code, st...

OBJECTIVE This study estimates the prevalence of injured patients requiring prehospital supplemental oxygen based on existing recommendations, and determines whether actual use exceeds those recommendations. PATIENTS AND METHODS Prehospital oxygen use and continuous peripheral oxygen saturation measurements were prospectively collected on a purposive sample of injured civilians transported to...

We have read with interest the recent article by Costa Navarro about trauma systems in Spain that analyzed several hospitals specialized in trauma care. We would like to congratulate the authors for their review of more than 100 centers in their study and for the conclusions to which they arrived, with which we agree completely. However, we would like to make some comments based on what we have...

Background. This study evaluated a potential correlation between patient age, body weight and survival from prehospital cardiac arrest, as a secondary endpoint in a study evaluating the effect of bicarbonate on survival. Design. A prospective, randomized, double-blinded clinical intervention trial. Methods. 874 prehospital cardiopulmonary arrest patients in a prehospital urban, suburban, and ru...

INTRODUCTION Although many protocols are available in the field of the prehospital medical care (PMC), there is still a notable gap between protocol based directions and applied clinical practice. This study measures the rate of protocol adherence in PMC provided for patients with chest pain and loss of consciousness (LOC). METHOD In this cross-sectional study, 10 educated research assistants...

BACKGROUND There is evidence that prehospital thrombolysis improves the outcome in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). OBJECTIVE This study aimed at comparing the cost-effectiveness of prehospital compared to inhospital thrombolysis for STEMI from the National Health System perspective. METHODS A decision-analytic model was used to compare these two strategies. The study endpoint wa...