Prehospital Supraglottic Airways: An NAEMSP Position Statement and Resource Document.

Supraglottic airway (SGA) devices provide effective conduits for oxygenation and ventilation and may offer protection from gastric aspiration. SGA devices are widely used by EMS clinicians as both rescue and primary airway management devices. While in common use for more than four decades, major developments in SGA education, science, and technology have influenced clinical strategies of SGA insertion and use in prehospital airway management for patients of all ages. NAEMSP recommends:SGAs have utility as a primary or secondary EMS airway intervention. EMS agencies should select SGA strategies that best suit available resources and local clinician skillset, as well as the nature of their clinical practice setting.EMS agencies that perform endotracheal intubation must also equip their clinicians with SGA devices and ensure adequate training and competence.In select situations, drug-assisted airway management may be used by properly credentialed EMS clinicians to facilitate SGA insertion.Confirmation of initial and continuous SGA placement using waveform capnography is strongly encouraged as a best practice.When it is functioning properly, EMS clinicians should refrain from converting an SGA to an endotracheal tube. The decision to convert an SGA to an endotracheal tube must consider the patient's condition, the effectiveness of SGA ventilations, and the clinical context and course of initial SGA insertionSGA training, competency, and clinical use must be continuously evaluated by EMS agencies using focused quality management programs.

Use of a limited lights and siren protocol in the prehospital setting vs standard usage.

OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to determine if implementing a standard lights and sirens (L&S) protocol would reduce their use and if this had any effect on patient disposition. METHODS: In a prospective cohort study, we trained emergency medical services (EMS) personnel from 4 towns in an L&S protocol and enrolled control personnel from 4 addition towns that were not using the protocol. We compare the use of L&S between them over a 6-month period. Our protocol restricted the usage of L&S to patients who had maladies requiring expedited transport. Emergency medical services personnel from the control towns had no such restrictions and were not aware that we were tracking their usage of L&S. We also considered if patient disposition was affected by the judicious usage of L&S. RESULTS: Prehospital EMS personnel who were trained in an L&S protocol were 5.6 times less likely to use L&S when compared with those not trained. Of the 808 patients transported by both types of workers, no difference in patient disposition was observed. CONCLUSIONS: Our protocol significantly reduced the use of L&S. Judicious use of L&S has significant implications for transport safety. By allowing for selective transport with L&S usage, we observed no impact in patient disposition.

Utilization of warning lights and siren based on hospital time-critical interventions.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate the time saved by usage of lights and siren (L&S) during emergency medical transport and measure the total number of time-critical hospital interventions gained by this time difference. METHODS: A retrospective study was performed of all advanced life support (ALS) transports using lights and siren to this university emergency department during a three-week period. Consecutive times were measured for 112 transports and compared with measured transport times for a personal vehicle traveling the same day of the week and time of day without lights and siren. The time-critical hospital interventions are defined as procedures or treatments that could not be performed in the prehospital setting requiring a physician. The project assessed whether the patients received the hospital interventions within the average time saved using lights and siren transport. RESULTS: The average difference in time with versus without L&S was -2.62 minutes (95% CI: -2.60- -2.63, paired t-test p<0.0001). The average transport time with L&S was 14.5±7.9 minutes (min) (1 standard deviation/minute (min), range=1-36 min.). The average transport time without L&S was 17.1±8.3 min (range=1-40 min). Of the 112 charts evaluated, five patients (4.5%) received time-critical hospital interventions. No patients received time-critical interventions within the time saved by utilizing lights and siren. Longer distances did not result in time saved with lights and siren. CONCLUSIONS: Limiting lights and siren use to the patients requiring hospital interventions will decrease the risks of injury and death, while adding the benefit of time saved in these critical patients.