Development and Deployment of a Pre-Planned Hospital Emergency Response Team (HERT) for EMS Augmentation: Case Report and Program Review.

With the establishment and growth of the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) subspecialty, significant attention has been focused on clinical activities performed by EMS physicians in the out-of-hospital environment. An EMS fellowship includes special operations education to develop preparedness for responding to field situations requiring physician expertise. With only a thousand Board Certified EMS physicians in North America, EMS physicians may not be available 24 h per day to respond to field emergencies. Non-EMS physicians with minimal experience in prehospital or austere care may be called upon to respond to complex prehospital emergencies requiring advanced skills. The Los Angeles County EMS Agency implemented a policy in 1992 to establish Hospital Emergency Response Teams (HERT) as a regional resource to provide time-critical, specialized prehospital services within an EMS system. Activation of the HERT is rare, most frequently prompted by need for field amputation to enable extrication. We describe one such incident of a field intervention by HERT and detail the staffing, training, and equipment considerations within our large regional EMS system.

Association between a Post-Resuscitation Care Bundle and the Odds of Field Rearrest after Successful Resuscitation from Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A Pre/Post Study.

OBJECTIVES: Rearrest after successful resuscitation from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is common and is associated with worse patient outcomes. However, little is known about the effect of interventions designed to prevent rearrest. We assessed the association between a prehospital care protocol for immediate management after return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and rates of field rearrest and survival to discharge in patients with prehospital ROSC. METHODS: This was a retrospective study of adult patients with OHCA and field ROSC within a large EMS system before (April 2017-August 2018) and after (April 2019-February 2020) implementation of a structured prehospital post-ROSC care protocol. The protocol was introduced in September 2018 and provided on-scene stabilization direction including guidance on ventilation and blood pressure support. Field data and hospital outcomes were used to compare the frequency of field rearrest, hospital survival, and survival with good neurologic outcome before and after protocol implementation. Logistic regression was used to assess the association between the post-implementation period and these outcomes, and odds ratios were reported. The association between individual interventions on these outcomes was also explored. RESULTS: There were 2,706 patients with ROSC after OHCA in the pre-implementation period and 1,780 patients in the post-implementation period. The rate of prehospital rearrest was 43% pre-implementation vs 45% post-implementation (RD 2%, 95% CI -1, 4%). In the adjusted analysis, introduction of the protocol was not associated with decreased odds of rearrest (OR 0.87, 95% CI 0.73, 1.04), survival to hospital discharge (OR 1.01, 95% CI 0.81, 1.24), or survival with good neurologic outcome (OR 0.81, 95% CI 0.61, 1.06). Post-implementation, post-ROSC administration of saline and push-dose epinephrine increased from 11% to 25% (RD 14%, 95% CI 11, 17%) and from 3% to 12% (RD 9% 95% CI 7, 11%), respectively. In an exploratory analysis, push-dose epinephrine was associated with a decreased odds of rearrest (OR 0.68, 95% CI 0.50, 0.94). CONCLUSIONS: Introduction of a post-ROSC care protocol for patients with prehospital ROSC after OHCA was not associated with reduced odds of field rearrest. When elements of the care bundle were considered individually, push-dose epinephrine was associated with decreased odds of rearrest.

Interfacility Transports Utilizing the 9-1-1 Emergency Medical Services System.

BACKGROUND: With the increasing development of regional specialty centers, emergency physicians are often confronted with patients needing definitive care unavailable at their hospital. Interfacility transports (IFTs) may be a useful option to ensure timely, definitive patient care. However, since traditional IFT can be a challenging and time-consuming process, some EMS agencies that have previously limited their service to 9-1-1 emergency responses are now performing emergency IFTs. OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine the frequency and nature of transfers provided by a local fire-based 9-1-1 EMS agency that recently began to provide limited IFT for time-critical emergencies. METHODS: A retrospective review of paramedic reports for all IFTs between April 2007 and March 2014 in the City of Los Angeles, California. All IFTs initiated by 9-1-1 call from an emergency department (ED) and performed by Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics were included. Reason for transfer, patient demographics, and key time metrics were captured. RESULTS: There were 919 IFTs during the study period, out of approximately 1,160,000 total ambulance transports (0.1%). The most frequent reason for IFT request was for transport of patients with ST segment elevation MI (STEMI) to a STEMI receiving center, followed by major trauma to a trauma center, and intracranial hemorrhage to a center with neurosurgical capability. Less common reasons included vascular emergencies, acute stroke, obstetric emergencies, and transfers to pediatric critical care facilities. Median transport time was 8 minutes (IQR 6-13 minutes) and median total time for IFT was 51 minutes (IQR 39-69 minutes). All IFTs involved a potentially life-threatening condition requiring a higher level of care than was available at the referring hospital. CONCLUSIONS: Emergent ED-to-ED interfacility transport can provide access to time critical definitive care. EMS agencies that have limited the scope of their response to community 9-1-1 emergencies should have policies in place to assure timely response for emergent IFT requests.

An Exploration of Discrepancies and Concordances Between Hospital Disaster Directors and General Health Care Providers in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea: Quantitative Analysis of a Multicenter Cross-Sectional Survey Study.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in the perception of disaster issues between disaster directors and general health care providers in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. METHODS: The Gyeonggi provincial committee distributed a survey to acute care facility personnel. Survey topics included awareness of general disaster issues, hospital preparedness, and training priorities. The questionnaire comprised multiple choices and items scored on a 10-point Likert scale. We analyzed the discrepancies and characteristics of the responses. RESULTS: Completed surveys were returned from 43 (67%) of 64 directors and 145 (55.6%) of 261 health care providers. In the field of general awareness, the topic of how to triage in disaster response showed the greatest discrepancies. In the domain of hospital level disaster preparedness, individual opinions varied most within the topics of incident command, manual preparation. The responses to "accept additional patients in disaster situation" showed the biggest differences (> 21 versus 6~10). CONCLUSIONS: In this study, there were disaster topics with discrepancies and concordances in perception between disaster directors and general health care providers. The analysis would present baseline information for the development of better training programs for region-specific core competencies, knowledge, and skills required for the effective response.

Tuberculous pleural effusion.

Pleural effusions are a common finding in emergency departments, with cytologic analysis traditionally required for definitive diagnosis. This article describes a classic sonographic appearance of tuberculous pleural effusion.