Are physicians required during winch rescue missions in an Australian helicopter emergency medical service?
| Autor: | Peter Brendon Sherren, Clare Hayes-Bradley, Brian Burns, Karel Habig, Cliff Reid |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2013 |
| Předmět: |
Adult
Male medicine.medical_specialty Sedation Psychological intervention Emergency treatment Critical Care and Intensive Care Medicine Demographic data medicine Helicopter emergency medical service Humans Prospective Studies Physician's Role Prospective cohort study Emergency Treatment business.industry Air Ambulances Australia General Medicine Middle Aged medicine.disease Emergency medicine Workforce Emergency Medicine Female Electronic database Medical emergency medicine.symptom business |
| Zdroj: | Emergency Medicine Journal. 31:229-232 |
| ISSN: | 1472-0213 1472-0205 |
| DOI: | 10.1136/emermed-2012-201879 |
| Popis: | Background A helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) capable of winching offers several advantages over standard rescue operations. Little is known about the benefit of physician winching in addition to a highly trained paramedic. Objective To analyse the mission profiles and interventions performed during rescues involving the winching of a physician in the Greater Sydney Area HEMS (GSA-HEMS). Methods All winch missions involving a physician from August 2009 to January 2012 were identified from the prospectively completed GSA-HEMS electronic database. A structured case sheet review for a predetermined list of demographic data and physician-only interventions (POIs) was conducted. Results We identified 130 missions involving the winching of a physician, of which 120 case sheets were available for analysis. The majority of patients were traumatically injured (90%) and male (85%) with a median age of 37 years. Seven patients were pronounced dead at the scene. A total of 63 POIs were performed on 48 patients. Administration of advanced analgesia was the most common POI making up 68.3% of interventions. Patients with abnormal RTS c 2 scores were more likely to receive a POI than those with normal RTS c 2 (84.8% vs 15.2%; p=0.03). The performance of a POI had no effect on median scene times (45 vs 43 min; p=0.51). Conclusions Our high POI rate of 40% (48/120) coupled with long rescue times and the occasional severe injuries support the argument for winching Physicians. Not doing so would deny a significant proportion of patients time-critical interventions, advanced analgesia and procedural sedation. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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