Background Early access to critical care interventions may improve outcomes for severely ill and injured patients. A Cochrane review [1] in 2009 reported that evidence supporting prehospital emergency intubation is lacking, but this does not equate to lack of benefit and prehospital RSI remains controversial. South Africa faces unique challenges due to prolonged prehospital times and limited ac...

Objective: Emergency medical services (EMS) is a critical component of health care system and the forefront of stroke care. The prominent role of EMS in stroke care is timely and accurate diagnosis of acute ischemic stroke and transfer of the patients to stroke centers. The present study aimed to assess the “awareness” and “attitude” of EMS personnel concerning prehospital stroke care based on ...

Davis M, Lewell M, McLeod S, Dukelow A. A prospective evaluation of the utility of the prehospital 12-lead electrocardiogram to change patient management in the emergency department. Prehosp. Emerg. Care 2013;18(June 2012):9-14. doi:10.3109/10903127.2013.825350. [PubMed] ● Reviewer: Mat Goebel, NREMT-P, MS1, UC San Diego School of Medicine ● Why is this important?: ECG changes occur during preh...

We have read with interest the recent article by Costa Navarro about trauma systems in Spain that analyzed several hospitals specialized in trauma care. We would like to congratulate the authors for their review of more than 100 centers in their study and for the conclusions to which they arrived, with which we agree completely. However, we would like to make some comments based on what we have...

INTRODUCTION Quality improvement collaboratives are a popular model used to address gaps between evidence-based practice and patient care. Little is known about use of such collaboratives in emergency medical services, particularly for improving prehospital stroke care. To determine the feasibility of using this approach to improve prehospital stroke care, we conducted a pilot study of the Emer...

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of the decision support tool (DST) on the assessment of the acutely ill or injured out-of-hospital patient. METHODS This study included systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials (RCT) where the DST was compared to usual care in and out of the hospital setting. The databases scanned include: (1) Cochrane Reviews (up to ...