Evaluation of patients for the need of thrombolytic therapy in the prehospital setting

Gender Differences in Scene Time, Transport Time, and Total Scene to Hospital Arrival Time Determined by the Use of a Prehospital Electrocardiogram in Patients with Complaint of Chest Pain

“…Although the earliest reports on the effect of performing a prehospital ECG on total scene time demonstrated an increase of approximately 5 min, our findings are consistent with more contemporary reports of nonsignificant delays in scene time with the addition of the PH ECG at the scene (17,18,26,(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38). This finding may be a reflection of our EMS system design, which deploys paramedics on both fire first responders and ambulances, thereby increasing the efficiency and speed of patient assessment.…”

Pre-Hospital Electrocardiography by Emergency Medical Personnel

“…These findings support the use of PH ECG for all EMS response patients experiencing chest pain. In particular, the clinically insignificant 18-s prolongation in scene time in our cohort is in contrast to previous reports demonstrating an average increase of 1.2 to 5.2 min in the on-scene time interval (21,(27)(28)(29)32). This difference may be a reflection of our EMS system design, which deploys paramedics on both fire first responders and ambulances and thereby increases the efficiency of rapid patient assessment.…”

Evaluation of a Public Education Program Delivered by Firefighters on Early Recognition of a Heart Attack

“…Delay on the part of the patient accounts for most of the delay in receiving thrombolytic therapy (Dracup et al, 1995;Goff et al, 1999;Goldberg et al, 2002;Goldberg, Yarzebski, Lessard, & Gore, 2000). Quick use of emergency medical services (EMS) for AMI symptoms can dramatically shorten overall prehospital delay time (Grim, Feldman, & Childers, 1989;Weaver et al, 1989). Unfortunately, more than half of all patients admitted to the hospital for possible AMI do not call 911 (Brown et al, 2000;Ho, 1991;Luepker et al, 2000).…”