Advancing Emergency Medical Services' (EMS) Response Capability for Behavioral Health Emergencies: Los Angeles County's Performance Improvement Initiative.

INTRODUCTION: Behavioral health emergencies (BHEs) are a common patient encounter for emergency medical services (EMS) clinicians and other first responders, in particular law enforcement (LE) officers. It is critical for EMS clinicians to have management strategies for BHEs, yet relatively little information exists on best practices. In 2016, the Los Angeles County EMS Agency's Commission initiated a comprehensive evaluation of the 9-1-1 response for BHEs and developed a plan for improving the quality of care and safety for patients and first responders. METHODS: A Behavioral Health Initiative Committee was assembled with broad representation from EMS, LE, health agencies, and the public. Committee objectives included: 1) produce a process map of the BHE response from the time of a 9-1-1 call to patient arrival at transport destination, 2) identify and describe the different agencies that respond, 3) describe the critical decision points in the EMS and LE field responses, 4) acquire data that quantitatively and/or qualitatively describe the services available, and 5) recommend interventions for system performance improvement. RESULTS: The committee generated comprehensive process maps for the prehospital response to BHEs, articulated principles for evaluation, and described key observations of the current system including: 9-1-1 dispatch criteria are variable and often defaults to a LE response, the LE response inadvertently criminalizes BHEs, EMS field treatment protocols for BHEs (and especially agitated patients) are limited, substance use disorder treatment lacks integration, destination options differ by transporting agency, and receiving facilities' capabilities to address BHEs are variable. Recommendations for performance improvement interventions and initial implementation steps included: standardize dispatch protocols, shift away from a LE primary response, augment EMS treatment protocols for BHEs and the management of agitation, develop alternate destination for EMS transport. CONCLUSION: This paper describes a comprehensive performance improvement initiative in LAC-EMSA's 9-1-1 response to BHEs. The initiative included a thorough current state analysis, followed by future state mapping and the implementation of interventions to reduce LE as the primary responder when an EMS response is often warranted, and to improve EMS protocols and access to resources for BHEs.

The Effectiveness of Intranasal Midazolam for the Treatment of Prehospital Pediatric Seizures: A Non-inferiority Study.

Background: Intranasal (IN) midazolam allows for rapid, painless treatment of pediatric seizures in the prehospital setting and may be a preferred administration route if determined to be non-inferior to intravenous (IV) or intramuscular (IM) routes. We sought to evaluate the effectiveness of IN midazolam for terminating prehospital pediatric seizures compared to midazolam administered by alternate routes. Methods: We performed a retrospective, non-inferiority analysis using data from a regional Emergency Medical Services (EMS) database. We included pediatric patients ≤ 14 years treated with midazolam (0.1 mg/kg) by EMS for non-traumatic seizures. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients requiring redosing of midazolam after initial treatment with IN midazolam compared to those that received IV or IM midazolam. We established a priori a risk difference of 6.5% as the non-inferiority margin. Results: We evaluated outcomes from 2,034 patients (median age 6 years [interquartile range 3 - 10 years], 55% male). Initial administration routes were 461 (23%) IN, 547 (27%) IM, 1024 (50%) IV, and 2 (0.1%) intraosseous (IO). Midazolam redosing occurred in 116 patients (25%) who received IN midazolam versus 222 patients (14%) treated initially with midazolam via alternate routes (risk difference 11% [95%CI 7 - 15%]). The age-adjusted odds ratio for redosing midazolam after intranasal administration compared to alternate route administration was 2.0 (95% CI 1.6 - 2.6). Conclusion: Prehospital treatment of pediatric seizure with intranasal midazolam was associated with increased frequency of redosing compared to midazolam administered by other routes, suggesting that 0.1 mg/kg is a subtherapeutic dose for intranasal midazolam administration.

Critical Medication Shortages: Effective Strategies to Maintain Continuous Medication Availability for Emergency Medical Services.

Objective: Critical shortages of generic injectable medications are an ongoing challenge for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) systems. Mitigation strategies have been proposed to address the issue, but a limited amount of data exists quantifying the scope of the problem or describing strategies being used to ensure access to essential medications for prehospital care. In this study, we sought to quantify specific medication shortages and to determine the most frequently employed mitigation strategies to maintain medication availability in a large, regional EMS system. Methods: A survey was distributed to the 30 public advanced life support (ALS) provider agencies in Los Angeles County (LAC) to assess the prevalence of specific medication shortages and types of shortage mitigation strategies implemented. Survey responses were reviewed and presented using descriptive statistics. Results: Survey responses were received from 29 of 30 (97%) provider agencies. All but one of the responding agencies reported being impacted by medication shortages. Strategies to maintain the supply of medications included use of alternative vendors 20/28 (71%), rotating medications from low to high volume units (54%), utilizing expired medication FDA-approved extensions (50%), substituting medications (43%), borrowing medications from the LAC EMS Agency (39%) or other EMS provider agencies (32%), utilizing expired medications with medical director approval (29%), diluting medications to obtain desired concentration (18%), reducing minimum periodic automatic replacement (PAR) levels (14%), and using alternate medication concentrations/formulations (14%). The medications most frequently reported to have shortages included epinephrine (0.1 mg/mL), morphine, dextrose 10%, and normal saline. None of the provider agencies self-reported adverse events due to the shortages. Conclusions: Critical medication shortages remain a problem for many EMS systems. EMS medical directors need to implement multiple mitigation strategies to maintain supply of critical medications for prehospital patient care.

Retinal detachment due to facial gunshot wound: the utility of ultrasonography in a medically austere environment.

BACKGROUND: Retinal detachment is one complication of ocular trauma. Retinal detachments resulting from gunshot wounds are typically associated with significant facial trauma, orbital trauma, or globe penetration. Ultrasonography has been shown to be of diagnostic utility in the evaluation of retinal detachments. OBJECTIVES: In this case, an atypical mechanism for retinal detachment is described. The aim is to describe the successful use of ultrasound as an aid for accurate diagnosis and disposition of a retinal detachment in practice environments with limited medical resources. CASE REPORT: We present a case of a low-velocity gunshot wound resulting in retinal detachment from pressure wave forces. A 21-year-old patient sustained a facial gunshot wound injury from a ricocheting AK-47 round, resulting in a closed globe retinal detachment. Portable ultrasonography was utilized as an accurate diagnostic modality in the management and disposition of this patient, allowing prompt confirmation of the diagnosis in a medically austere environment. CONCLUSION: Ultrasonography can be a valuable diagnostic tool in the evaluation of ocular trauma in medically austere environments.

Elevated prehospital point-of-care glucose is associated with worse neurologic outcome after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

OBJECTIVES: Hyperglycemia is associated with poor outcomes in critically-ill patients. This has implications for prognostication of patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) and for post-resuscitation care. We assessed the association of hyperglycemia, on field point-of-care (POC) testing, with survival and neurologic outcome in patients with return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) after OHCA. METHODS: This was a retrospective analysis of data in a regional cardiac care system from April 2011 through December 2017 of adult patients with OHCA and ROSC who had a field POC glucose. Patients were excluded if they were hypoglycemic (glucose <60 mg/dl) or received empiric dextrose. We compared hyperglycemic (glucose >250 mg/dL) with euglycemic (glucose 60-250 mg/dL) patients. Primary outcome was survival to hospital discharge (SHD). Secondary outcome was survival with good neurologic outcome (cerebral performance category 1 or 2 at discharge). We determined the adjusted odds ratios (AORs) for SHD and survival with good neurologic outcome. RESULTS: Of 9008 patients with OHCA and ROSC, 6995 patients were included; 1941 (28%) were hyperglycemic and 5054 (72%) were euglycemic. Hyperglycemic patients were more likely to be female, of non-White race, and have an initial non-shockable rhythm compared to euglycemic patients (p < 0.0001 for all). Hyperglycemic patients were less likely to have SHD compared to euglycemic survivors, 24.4% vs 32.9%, risk difference (RD) -8.5% (95 %CI -10.8%, -6.2%), p < 0.0001. Hyperglycemic survivors were also less likely to have good neurologic outcome compared to euglycemic survivors, 57.0% vs 64.6%, RD -7.6% (95 %CI -12.9%, -2.4%), p = 0.004. The AOR for SHD was 0.72 (95 %CI 0.62, 0.85), p < 0.0001 and for good neurologic outcome, 0.70 (95 %CI 0.57, 0.86), p = 0.0005. CONCLUSION: In patients with OHCA, hyperglycemia on field POC glucose was associated with lower survival and worse neurologic outcome.