Category: Uncategorized

Article Bites #20: Computers as adjuncts to Humans: Causes of Prehospital misinterpretation of STEMI

Article:  Bosson, N., Sanko, S., Stickney, R. E., Niemann, J., French, W. J., Jollis, J. G., … & Koenig, W. (2017). Causes of prehospital misinterpretations of ST elevation myocardial infarction. Prehospital Emergency Care, 21(3), 283-290.  Background:   Prehospital STEMI identification plays a critical role in ensuring appropriate destination decision and shortening times to reperfusion for patients with acute

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Article Bites #19: Evidence Based Guidelines for Fatigue Risk Management

Article: Patterson PD, Higgins JS, Van Dongen HPA, Buysse DJ, Thackery RW, Kupas DF, et al. Evidence-based guidelines for fatigue risk management in emergency medical services. Prehosp Emerg Care 2018 Feb;22(sup1):89-101. Background: There is not a large amount of evidence in the EMS literature that guides how to mitigate workplace fatigue, which affects over half of

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COVID-19 Pandemic: Expect the Unexpected

by Aaron Farney, MD Case Presentation EMS is dispatched priority 1 for an 86-year-old female unconscious/fainting call.  Despite 911 center implementation of the Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS) 36 pandemic card, this incident is coded via the 31 card – unconscious/fainting. On arrival, EMS discovers family in an upstairs bathroom surrounding an elderly female who

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The Post Naloxone Patient: Optimizing Opioid Overdose Refusals

by Brent Olson, NRP & Hashim Zaidi, MD Clinical Scenario You answer a call for on-line medical control for a 28-year-old male patient refusing transport to the hospital. The paramedics report that he was initially cyanotic with pinpoint pupils and snoring, shallow respirations. The paramedics administered a single dose of 2 mg intranasal naloxone. The

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Article Bites #18: Trauma triage of older adults: Anticoagulants Matter.

Article Bites Summary by Clare Wallner MD Infographic by Jeffrey Stirling MSc(c), PCP, @jeffrey_stirlin Article: Sacramento County Prehospital Research Consortium. Out-of-hospital triage of older adults with head injury: a retrospective study of the effect of adding “anticoagulation or antiplatelet medication use” as a criterion. Ann Emerg Med 2017 Aug;70(2):127-38. Background and objectives: The CDC Field trauma triage

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Article Bites #17: PARTing the Confusion on Airway Selection in Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest

The Article: Wang HE, Schmicker RH, et al. (2018). Effect of a Strategy of Initial Laryngeal Tube Insertion vs Endotracheal Intubation on 72-Hour Survival in Adults With Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest. JAMA, 320(8), 769. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.7044 Background & Objectives: Airway management has long been one of the first steps in the ABC’s of cardiac arrest management, but there

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BLS is more than basic, it’s fundamental to good care.

by Erin Brennan, MD, MPH Recently on twitter, one of our colleagues, Joshua Stilley, an EMS Physician, tweeted the following: His description suggests an important change in our lexicon.  The way we describe things assigns value – and basic implies that it is easy to do and sounds much less attractive that “advanced”.  But there

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Article Bites #16: TXA: The Future for Stop the Bleed?

TL;DR TXA is used to stabilize clots by preventing fibrinolysis Dose: 1g over 10 minutes, then 1g over 8 hours CRASH-2 has shown an improvement in survival Even greater improvement if administered within 3 hours (earlier is better!) CRASH-3 has shown mortality improvement in mild-moderate isolated head trauma (GCS 9-15) TXA rate of vascular occlusive

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EMS Physician Assistants: Are They the Next Paramedic Practitioner?

David Wright, PA-C, NRP & Bridgette Svancarek, MD, FAEMS “There should be a paramedic to Physician Assistant (PA) fast track!” “PAs and paramedics do about the same job!” “Isn’t a PA doing the same job as a paramedic, just in the hospital?” “Paramedics are just as good as nurses” “Why don’t we [paramedics] get paid

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