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emergency medical dispatch protocols

Caller's Ability to Understand "Responding Normally" vs. "Completely Alert" Key Question in a Brazilian Portuguese Version of an Emergency Medical Dispatch Protocol

Valeria De Cassia Pereira, RN, EMD-QI, Sara Scott, Maristela Uta Nakano, MD, MBA, Greg Scott, MBA, EMD-QI, Christopher Olola, PhD, Isabel Gardett, PhD, Srilakshmi Sangaraju, MS, Irena Weight, Daniel Ashwood, PhD, Edward Trefts, MFA, Brett Patterson, Jeff J. Clawson, MD

Aug 13, 2019|AEDR 2019 Vol. 7 Issue 2|Original Research

Alertness is important to assess during many medical emergencies; however, assessing alertness proves difficult in a non-visual emergency dispatch environment. Little is understood about how to best gather an accurate report of patient alertness during an interaction between callers and Emergency Medical Dispatchers (EMDs). The primary objective of the study was to compare two versions of a Key Question (KQ) intended to gain an accurate report of alertness, to determine whether either demonstrates a higher degree of caller...

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Emergency Medical Dispatch Identification of Opioid Overdose and Frequency of Naloxone Administration on Scene

Richard E. Lindfors, NRP, EMD-Q, Byron Shultz, Greg Scott, MBA, EMD-QI, Isabel Gardett, PhD, Meghan Broadbent, MS, Srilakshmi Sangaraju, MS, Rob Lawrence, Danny Garrison, Shannon Smith, Todd Stout, Marc Gay, Mike Taigman, MS, Jeff J. Clawson, MD, Christopher Olola, PhD

Aug 13, 2019|AEDR 2019 Vol. 7 Issue 2|Original Research

Opioid overdoses have reached crisis proportions. One response has been to increase the availability of naloxone HCl (commonly referred to by the generic name naloxone), which reverses the effects of opioid overdose. The Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS®) includes instructions by which the Emergency Medical Dispatcher (EMD) can prompt the caller to find and use naloxone on overdose victims. However, these instructions are only provided on dispatch Chief Complaint (CC) Protocols on which overdoses are expected to be handled...

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