BACKGROUND Emergency medical services (EMS) personnel often are not permitted to honor requests to withhold resuscitation at the end of life, particularly if there is no written do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order. OBJECTIVE To determine whether EMS personnel from agencies implementing new guidelines would be more likely to withhold resuscitation from persons having out-of-hospital cardiac arrests...

This article is intended as a generic guide to evidence-based airway management for all categories of pre-hospital personnel. It is based on a review of relevant literature but the majority of the studies have not been performed under realistic, pre-hospital conditions and the recommendations are therefore based on a low level of evidence (D). The advice given depends on the qualifications of t...

A quick and efficient prehospital emergency response depends on immediate ambulance dispatch, patient assessment, triage, and transport to hospital. During 1999, the Ambulance Command of the Hong Kong Fire Services Department responded to 484,923 calls, which corresponds to 1329 calls each day. Cooperation between the Fire Services Department and the Hospital Authority exists at the levels of p...

PURPOSE The physical demands and hazards associated with emergency service work place particular stress on responders' cardiovascular systems. Indeed, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a significant problem for emergency service personnel. Although it may be difficult to alter the cardiovascular health hazards associated with the work environment, it is possible for personnel to control their mod...

BACKGROUND Family physicians provide care in emergency departments, especially in rural areas; however, no published data describe how they perceive their preparation for emergency practice. We surveyed graduates of Colorado family practice residencies concerning their emergency medicine practice, their comfort working in emergency departments, and their perceived preparation for practicing eme...

objective: to validate the triage ratings performed by the electronic triage system (ets) using hospitalization, length of stay, resource use, in-hospital mortality and patient bills as outcome measures. methods: in this retrospective cross-sectional study the medical records of 387 patients were reviewed in a one-week period. the data included triage category and the outcome measures were hosp...

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) providers have the responsibility of offering care and transporting traumatic patients to hospitals. EMS is a crucial part of the healthcare system and the public's emergency medical safety net (1). There is little research addressing the effectiveness of EMS practice. Considering this, we decided to study the condition of trauma patients transported to the Imam...