Abstract
Objective
To assess the performance of an Australian pre-hospital and retrieval medicine (PHRM) service against the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) standard which recommends that pre-hospital emergency anaesthesia (PHEA) in trauma patients should be conducted within 45-min of first contact with emergency services.
Methods
Retrospective observational study of all adult trauma patients in which PHEA was conducted by the PHRM service covering a 5-year period from January 2015 to December 2019.
Results
Over the 5-year study period, 1509 (22%) of the PHRM service workload comprised primary retrievals from scene. Most 1346 (89%) of these cases had a primary diagnosis of trauma. Of these we have complete data for 328 of the 337 cases requiring a PHEA and 121 (37%) patients received this within the recommended 45-min time frame. The service attended in rapid response vehicles (n = 160, 49%), rotary wing (n = 151, 46%) and fixed wing (n = 17, 5%) transport modalities. For a service covering 983 482 km2, the median distance travelled to patients was 35 (16–71) km and the median time to PHEA was 54 (38–80) min.
Conclusions
In a cohort of 337 patients treated by a dedicated PHRM service in South Australia, the median time to PHEA was 54 (38–80) min with only 37% of patients receiving PHEA within 45 min from the activation of the team. Despite differing patient demographics, the percentage of patients receiving PHEA within the recommended time frame was greater than a similar cohort from the UK. However, both data sets still fall short of recommended targets.
To assess the performance of an Australian pre-hospital and retrieval medicine (PHRM) service against the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) standard which recommends that pre-hospital emergency anaesthesia (PHEA) in trauma patients should be conducted within 45-min of first contact with emergency services.
Methods
Retrospective observational study of all adult trauma patients in which PHEA was conducted by the PHRM service covering a 5-year period from January 2015 to December 2019.
Results
Over the 5-year study period, 1509 (22%) of the PHRM service workload comprised primary retrievals from scene. Most 1346 (89%) of these cases had a primary diagnosis of trauma. Of these we have complete data for 328 of the 337 cases requiring a PHEA and 121 (37%) patients received this within the recommended 45-min time frame. The service attended in rapid response vehicles (n = 160, 49%), rotary wing (n = 151, 46%) and fixed wing (n = 17, 5%) transport modalities. For a service covering 983 482 km2, the median distance travelled to patients was 35 (16–71) km and the median time to PHEA was 54 (38–80) min.
Conclusions
In a cohort of 337 patients treated by a dedicated PHRM service in South Australia, the median time to PHEA was 54 (38–80) min with only 37% of patients receiving PHEA within 45 min from the activation of the team. Despite differing patient demographics, the percentage of patients receiving PHEA within the recommended time frame was greater than a similar cohort from the UK. However, both data sets still fall short of recommended targets.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 711-716 |
| Journal | Emergency Medicine Australasia |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| Early online date | 30 Mar 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 01 Oct 2022 |
Keywords
- Emergency Medicine