The introduction of a regional Norwegian HEMS coordinator: an assessment of the effects on response times, geographical service areas and severity scores

Ulvin, Ole Erik; Skjærseth, Eivinn Årdal; Haugland, Helge; Thorsen, Kjetil; Nordseth, Trond; Orre, Marie Falch; Vesterhus, Lars; Krüger, Andreas

doi:10.1186/s12913-022-08337-z

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 34 publications

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“…In need of more specialized competence, in remote areas or when reducing time to de nitive care is possible with air transport, HEMS might be dispatched. This is a 24/7/365 service, staffed by a pilot, a specially trained ight paramedic or nurse, and a board-certi ed anesthesiologist (HEMS physician) (21). Regional dispatch guidelines indicate when HEMS should be used (Supplementary le 1).…”

Section: Study Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pre-hospital care for children - a descriptive study from Central Norway

Myhre,

Næss,

Skogvoll

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Background Pre-hospital incidents involving pediatric and neonatal patients are infrequent, and clinical characteristics and care for these patients differ from the adult population. Lack of knowledge, guidelines, and experience can make pre-hospital pediatric care challenging, and there is limited research on the epidemiology and best practice of care for this population. We examined the pre-hospital pediatric population in the county of Sør-Trøndelag, Norway, to improve our understanding of this population in our region. Methods We conducted a retrospective observational cohort study of emergency incidents involving children under twelve years of age with dispatch of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in Sør-Trøndelag between 2018 and 2022. Incidents and patient characteristics were extracted from the Emergency Medical Communication Center (EMCC) database. In addition, data on patient characteristics and interventions for more serious incidents seen by the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) were included from the database LABAS.We provided descriptive statistics and estimated population incidences using Poisson regression. Results The catchment area of EMCC Sør-Trøndelag has a population of approximately 43,000 children under the age of twelve years. During the five-year study period, there were 7,005 emergency calls concerning this patient population, representing 6% of all emergency calls (total no. 108,717). Of these, 3,500 (50%) resulted in the dispatch of an ambulance and/or HEMS, yielding an annual incidence of EMS dispatches of 17 per 1,000 children. The three most common primary medical problems were respiratory distress, altered consciousness, and trauma. Among the 309 HEMS patients, 131 (42%) received advanced interventions from the HEMS physician. Assisted ventilation was the most frequent intervention. Conclusion Pediatric and neonatal patients make up a small proportion of pre-hospital patient dispatches in Sør-Trøndelag. Consequently, each EMS provider infrequently encounters children in the pre-hospital environment, resulting in less experience with pediatric advanced medical interventions. This study identifies some clinical characteristics and interventions regarding pediatric and neonatal patients that have been pointed out as focus areas for pediatric pre-hospital research.

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Section: Study Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pre-hospital care for children - a descriptive study from Central Norway

Myhre,

Næss,

Skogvoll

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Trauma und Zeit

Hubrich

2023

Mehr Fallbeispiele Notfallmedizin

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Characteristics of the most severely ill and injured patients in a Norwegian helicopter emergency medical service: a retrospective cohort study

Ringen,

Haugland,

Brede

2024

BMC Emerg Med

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Background Physician-staffed helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) are dispatched to a variety of incidents, ranging from less serious to life-threatening. The skillset of a physician may be important to provide appropriate care for the most critically ill and severely injured patients. A better understanding of these patients may therefore be important to optimize dispatch criteria, training, and equipment setups for HEMS units. The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of patients with the national advisory committee on aeronautics (NACA) score 5 and 6, primarily by diagnostic group and interventions performed. Methods Retrospective cohort study on aggregated data from the HEMS-base in Trondheim, Norway. All patients with NACA score 5 and 6 in the 10-year period from 2013 to 2022 were included. Patients with return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) after successful cardiopulmonary resuscitation were described separately from non-cardiac arrest patients. Results Out of 9546 patient encounters, 2598 patients were included, with 1640 in the NACA 5 and 958 in NACA 6 group. Patient age was median 63 (interquartile range 45–74) and 64% of the patients were male. Post-ROSC patients accounted for 24% of patients. Of the non-cardiac arrest patients, the most frequent aetiology was trauma (16%), cardiac (15%), neurologic (14%) and respiratory (11%). The most common physician-requiring advanced interventions were general anaesthesia (22%), intubation (21%), invasive blood pressure monitoring (21%) and ventilator treatment (18%). The mean number of advanced interventions per mission were consistent during the study period (1,78, SD 0,25). Conclusion Twenty-seven percent of all HEMS dispatches were to NACA 5 and 6 patients. Twenty-four percent of these were post-ROSC patients. Sixty-three percent of all patients received at least one advanced physician-requiring intervention and the average number of interventions were consistent during the last 10 years. Hence, the competence a physician-staffed HEMS resource provide is utilized in a high number of critically ill and injured patients.

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The introduction of a regional Norwegian HEMS coordinator: an assessment of the effects on response times, geographical service areas and severity scores

Cited by 4 publications

References 34 publications

Pre-hospital care for children - a descriptive study from Central Norway

Pre-hospital care for children - a descriptive study from Central Norway

Trauma und Zeit

Characteristics of the most severely ill and injured patients in a Norwegian helicopter emergency medical service: a retrospective cohort study

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