Postal survey methodology to assess patient satisfaction in a suburban emergency medical services system: an observational study.

Background: Patient satisfaction is of growing importance to providers of emergency medical services (EMS). Prior reports of patient satisfaction have frequently used resource-intensive telephone follow-up to assess satisfaction. We determine the feasibility of using a single mailing, anonymous postal survey methodology for collecting patient satisfaction data from a suburban EMS system.

Evaluating an emergency medical services-initiated nontransport system.

Objective: To evaluate both factors predicting nontransport and mortality rates in an emergency medical services system with a nontransport policy.

Methods: We reviewed data from 1,581 transported and nontransported patients from October 2001 to July 2003. Patients who refused transport against medical advice were excluded.

Prehospital cardiac arrest in a paramedic first-responder system using the Utstein style.

Objectives: To describe the characteristics of patients found to have cardiac arrest and to evaluate the characteristics predictive of survival after cardiac arrest in a paramedic first-responder model.

Methods: All patients who suffered out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the city of Reading, Ohio, from January 1998 to December 2003 were recorded in the Utstein style. The number and incidence rate of witnessed arrests, initial rhythms, rate of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and 30-day mortality rate were retrospectively collected.