Patient and Prehospital Predictors of Hospital Admission for Patients With and Without Histories of Diabetes Treated by Paramedics for Hypoglycemia: A Health Record Review Study.

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to describe the characteristics, management, and outcomes of patients treated by paramedics for hypoglycemia, and to determine the predictors of hospital admission for these patients within 72 hours of the initial hypoglycemia event. METHODS: We performed a health record review of paramedic call reports and emergency department records over a 12-month period. We queried prehospital databases to identify cases, which included all patients ⩾18 years with prehospital glucose readings of <72 mg/dl (<4.0 mmol/L) and excluded terminally ill and cardiac arrest patients. We developed and piloted a standardized data collection tool and obtained consensus on all data definitions before initiation of data extraction by trained investigators. Data analyses included descriptive statistics univariate and logistic regression presented as adjusted odds ratios (aOR) with 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). RESULTS: There were 791 patients with the following characteristics: mean age 56.2, male 52.3%, type 1 diabetes 11.6%, on insulin 43.3%, median initial glucose 54.0 mg/dl (3.0 mmol/L), from home 56.4%. They were treated by advanced care paramedics 80.1%, received intravenous D50 37.8%, intramuscular glucagon 17.8%, oral complex carbs/protein 25.7%, and accepted transport to hospital 70.2%. Among those transported, 134 (24.3%) were initially admitted and four more were admitted within 72 hours. One patient was admitted, discharged, and admitted again within 72 hours. Patients without documented histories of diabetes (aOR 2.35, CI 1.13-4.86), with cardiovascular disease (aOR 1.81, CI 1.10-3.00), on corticosteroids (aOR 4.63, CI 2.15-9.96), on oral hypoglycemic agent(s) (aOR 1.92, CI 1.02-3.62), or those given glucagon (aOR 1.77, CI 1.07-2.93) on scene were more likely to be admitted to hospital, whereas patients on insulin (aOR 0.49, CI 0.27-0.91), able to tolerate complex oral carbs/protein (aOR 0.22, CI 0.10-0.48), with final GCS scores of 15 (aOR 0.53, CI 0.34-0.83), or from public locations (aOR 0.40, CI 0.21-0.75) were less likely to be admitted. CONCLUSIONS: There are several patient and prehospital management characteristics which, in combination, could be incorporated into a safe clinical decision tool for patients who present with hypoglycemia.

Advanced Life Support for Out-of-Hospital Chest Pain: The OPALS Study†.

Context: As many as 14% of patients transported by ambulance with chest pain die prior to hospital discharge. To date, no high-quality controlled trials have revealed that prehospital advanced life support interventions affect survival for these patients. Objective: The Ontario Prehospital Advanced Life Support (OPALS) Study assessed the effect of adding an advance life support service to an existing basic life support emergency medical service program, on the rate of mortality and morbidity for patients with out-of-hospital chest pain. Design: Controlled clinical trial comparing survival for 9 months before and 9 after instituting an advanced life support program. Setting: Thirteen urban and suburban Ontario communities (populations ranging from 30,000 to 750,000; total, 2.5 million). Patients: All adult patients with a primary complaint of chest pain and transported by paramedics to the emergency department. Intervention: Paramedics were trained in standard advanced life support, which includes endotracheal intubation, intravenous furosemide and morphine, oral ASA, and sublingual NTG. Emergency medical services within each community had to meet predefined criteria in order to qualify for the advanced life support phase. Main Outcome Measure: Survival to hospital discharge. Results: Overall, 12,168 patients were enrolled in either the basic life support phase (N = 5,788) or the advanced life support phase (N = 6,380). The rate of mortality significantly decreased from 4.3% in the basic life support phase to 3.2% in the advanced life support phase (absolute change 1.1, 95% CI 0.4-1.8, P = 0.0013). We also demonstrated a decrease in mortality for the subgroup of patients with a discharge diagnosis of myocardial infarction (13.1 percent vs 8.2 percent, P = 0.002). Conclusions: The addition of a prehospital advanced life support program to an existing basic life support emergency medical service was associated with a significant decrease in the mortality rate among patients complaining of chest pain. Future research should clarify the most effective interventions and target specific populations.

Characteristics, Prehospital Management, and Outcomes in Patients Assessed for Hypoglycemia: Repeat Access to Prehospital or Emergency Care.

BACKGROUND: In Ontario, Canada, there currently are no prehospital treat-and-release protocols and the safety of this practice remains unclear. We sought to describe the characteristics, management, and outcomes of patients with hypoglycemia treated by paramedics, and to determine the predictors of repeat access to prehospital or emergency department (ED) care within 72 hours of initial paramedic assessment. METHODS: We performed a health record review of paramedic call reports and ED records over a 12-month period. We queried prehospital databases to identify cases, which included all adult patients (≥ 18 years) with a prehospital glucose reading of <72mg/dl (4.0mmol/L) and excluded terminally ill and cardiac arrest patients. We developed and piloted a standardized data collection tool and obtained consensus on all data definitions before initiation of data extraction by trained investigators. Data analyses include descriptive statistics with standard deviations, Chi-square, t-tests, and logistic regression with adjusted odds ratios (AdjOR). RESULTS: There were 791 patients with the following characteristics: mean age 56.2, male 52.3%, known diabetic 61.6%, on insulin 46.1%, mean initial glucose 50.0 dl/mg (2.8 mmol/L), from home 56.3%. They were treated by an Advanced Care Paramedic 80.1%, received IV D50W 38.0%, IM glucagon 18.3%, PO complex carbs 26.6%, and accepted transport to hospital 69.4%. Of those transported, 134/556 (24.3%) were admitted and 9 (1.6%) died in the ED. Overall, 43 patients (5.4%) had repeat access to prehospital/ED care, among those, 8 (18.6%) were related to hypoglycemia. Patients on insulin were less likely to have repeat access to prehospital/ED care (AdjOR 0.4; 95%CI 0.2-0.9). This was not impacted by initial (or refusal of) transport (AdjOR 1.1; 95%CI 0.5-2.4). CONCLUSION: Although risk of repeat access to prehospital/ED care for patients with hypoglycemia exists, it was less common among patients taking insulin and was not predicted by an initial refusal of transport.

Barriers to Self-Reporting Patient Safety Incidents by Paramedics: A Mixed Methods Study.

BACKGROUND: A minimal amount of research exists examining the extent to which patient safety events occur within paramedicine and even fewer studies investigating patient safety systems for self-reporting by paramedics. The purpose of this study was to identify barriers to paramedic self-reporting of patient safety incidents (PSIs). METHODS: We randomly distributed paper-based surveys among 1,153 paramedics in an Ontario region in Canada. The survey described one of 5 different PSI clinical scenarios (near miss, adverse event, and minor, major or critical patient care variances) and listed 18 potential barriers to self-reporting PSIs as statements presented for rating on a 5-point Likert scale (very significant = 1 - very insignificant = 5). We invited comments on PSI self-reporting with 2 open-ended questions. We analyzed data with descriptive statistics, chi-square tests and Kruskal-Wallis H test. We used an inductive approach to qualitatively analyze emerging themes. RESULTS: We received responses from 1,133 paramedics (98.3%). Almost one third (28.4%) were Advanced Care Paramedics and 45.1% had >10 years' experience. The top 5 barriers to PSI self-reporting (very significant or significant, %) were the fear of being: punished (81.4%), suspended (79.6%), terminated (79.1%), investigated by Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (78.4%), and decertified (78.0%). Overall, 64.1% responded they would self-report a given PSI. Intention to self-report a PSI varied according to scenario (22.8% near miss, 46.6% adverse event, 74.4% minor, 92.6% major, 95.6% critical). No association was found between level of training (p = 0.55) or years of experience (p = 0.10) and intention to self-report a PSI. Seven themes to improve PSI self-reporting by paramedics emerged from the qualitative data. CONCLUSIONS: A high proportion of fear-based barriers to self-reporting of PSIs exist among this study population. This suggests that a culture change is needed to facilitate the identification of future patient safety threats.