EMS Provider and Patient Safety during Response and Transport: Proceedings of an Ambulance Safety Conference.

Abstract The out-of-hospital setting is unique to health care and presents many challenges to providing safe, high-quality medical care in emergency situations. The challenges of the prehospital environment require thoughtful design of systems and processes of care. The unique challenges of ambulance safety may be met by analyzing systems and incorporating process improvements.

Association of heat index and patient volume at a mass gathering event.

Unlabelled: In 1999, a department of emergency medicine was asked to provide medical care at a football stadium with a capacity of 61,625. Over four seasons, the department's experience has been that the number of patients seen during a game correlates closely with game-time heat and humidity (heat index).

Objective: To determine how closely the heat index is associated with the number of patients who will require care at a mass gathering event.

Emergency medical vehicle collisions and potential for preventive intervention.

Background: Emergency medical vehicle collisions (EMVCs) cause significant injury, death, and property damage every year in the United States and result in significant delays in transporting patients to the hospital.

Objective: To identify factors associated with EMVCs that are potentially amenable to preventive intervention.

Methods: The authors reviewed data from the Paramedic Division of the Denver Health and Hospital Authority (DHHA) on all EMVCs occurring from 1989 through 1997.

Animal laboratories for procedural education of emergency medicine residents.

Many Emergency Medicine residencies incorporate animal laboratories into their training for procedural education because clinical opportunities to practice some emergency technical procedures are limited. To determine the proportion of Emergency Medicine residency programs utilizing animal laboratories, their characteristics, and the major impediments to providing animal laboratories, a cross-sectional descriptive survey of Emergency Medicine residency directors was conducted. Surveys were returned by 109/123 (89%) program directors.

Emergency department resuscitative procedures: animal laboratory training improves procedural competency and speed.

Unlabelled: Certain resuscitative procedures can be lifesaving, but are performed infrequently by emergency medicine (EM) residents on human subjects. Alternative training methods for gaining procedural proficiency must be explored and tested.

Objective: To test whether animal laboratory training (ALT) is associated with sustained improvement in procedural competency and speed.