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emergency medical services

Falls Protocol Lift Assist Calls: Predictors of Repeat 911 Calls

Lee Van Vleet, Marty Gray, BS, EMD-Q, Dawn Faudere, EMT-P, EMD-Q, Daniel Ashwood, PhD, Alissa Wheeler, BA, Christopher Olola, PhD

Oct 01, 2020|AEDR 2020 Vol. 8 Issue 2|Original Research

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) regularly respond to lift assist calls. Previous studies have shown lift assist calls present a significant risk of morbidity and mortality. This group of callers is also likely to make repeated calls to 911 for EMS assistance. The ability to foresee which of these patients may need to call 911 again within 24 hours could help decrease the risk posed to patients in these situations. To describe calls originating as lift assist calls with repeat calls within 24 hours, explore the...

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Comparison of Emergency Medical Service Stroke Identification and Neurologist In-Hospital Stroke Assessment: Results of the Pilot Study of Genova Network

Andrea Furgani, MD, Silvia Distefano, MD, Lavinia Ferraro, EMD-Q, Silvano Ruffoni, MD, Francesco Bermano, MD

Mar 04, 2020|AEDR 2019 Vol. 7 Issue 3|Original Research

Acute stroke is one of the five time-dependent conditions (first hour quintet, FHQ) that emergency medical services (EMS) must manage better and faster; early identification and treatment are critical to reduce both immediate damage and long-term disability. For Emergency Medical Communication Centers, the rapid and accurate identification of stroke patients is the challenge to be won in the coming years. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the ability of Emergency Medical Dispatchers (EMDs) and rescuers to rapidly and...

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Assessing the Impact of Opening Greetings in Handling Emergency Calls: Genova 118 Experience

Andrea Furgani, MD, Francesca Raffo, EMD-Q, Giuseppina Contiero, EMD

Aug 17, 2018|Research Posters

The manner in which calls are handled at the emergency telecommunication center has a significant role in effective management of assistance on the scene. The main information needed to start a response is the location of the incident, which usually means the complete address. The Genova 118 Center has recently modified its standard greeting from "Genova 118" (STD1) to "Genova 118, where do I send the ambulance?" (STD2). The aim of this study is to verify whether the new standard reduces the time needed to acquire a complete address during an emergency call. The prospective, randomized study...

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Comparison of Emergency Medical Service Stroke Identification and Neurologist In-Hospital Stroke Assessment: Preliminary Results of the Genova Network

Andrea Furgani, MD, Silvia Distefano, MD, Silvano Ruffoni, MD, Francesco Bermano, MD

Aug 17, 2018|Research Posters

The main objective of this study was to compare emergency medical dispatch (EMD) stroke identification with hospital-confirmed stroke. The secondary objective was to compare the results of stroke diagnostic tool (SDxT) of Medical Priority Dispatch System™ (MPDS®) with National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) used in hospital by neurologists. Data utilized for the observational study were taken from a preliminary stroke dataset collected at San Martino Hospital (Genova) between January 2016 and June 2017. All cases of suspected stroke arrived at First Aid began part of the study...

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Implementation of the European Emergency Number 112 in Liguria, Italy

Andrea Furgani, MD, Davide Stasi, Sergio Caglieris, MD, Francesco Bermano, MD

Aug 17, 2018|Research Posters

On July 29, 1991 the 91/396/CEE European Community introduced the short number 1-1-2, as the only one European emergency number (EEN). In Italy, the implementation of European Decision began with the legislative decree of August 1st, 2003, and subsequent amendments and additions. In Liguria, Italy, the signing of Memorandum of Understanding between Liguria Region President and Interior Ministry in September 2016, initiated the EEN planning. Purpose of this work is to explain how EEN has been developed in Liguria, which hosts a population of about 1,600,000 with a significant tourist flow that...

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European Emergency Number 112 in Liguria, Italy: Results of the First Year of Activity

Andrea Furgani, MD, Davide Stasi, Sergio Caglieris, MD, Francesco Bermano, MD

Aug 17, 2018|Research Posters

On February 14, 2017, the Region of Liguria (one of the 20 regions of Italy) activated a first level public safety answering point that uses the universal European Emergency Number (EEN), 1-1-2. This implementation had 3 primary purposes: immediate call pickup/answering for all emergency calls; a fast call transfer to a secondary PSAP - either medical, police or fire; and filtering of inappropriate calls. This study reports on several performance indicators for the first year of system use. The objective of this study was to report on several key performance indicators of the new system...

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Evaluation Variability Of Emergency Medical Calls Among Emergency Medical Communication Centers In Liguria, Italy

Andrea Furgani, MD, Christopher Olola, PhD, Lavinia Ferraro, EMD-Q, Salvatore Esposito, MD, Stefano Ferlito, MD, Fabio Ferrari, MD, Roberto Sanna, MD, Silvano Ruffoni, MD, Francesco Bermano, MD

Apr 03, 2018|AEDR 2018 Vol. 6 Issue 1|Original Research

The evaluation of emergency calls received by Emergency Medical Communication Centers (EMCCs) is the first and basic step for activating the chain of survival. It also represents an essential prerequisite for optimal response to and management of critical patients. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether the introduction of a single, structured, and standardized emergency medical dispatch system provided a more uniform evaluation of all emergency calls among five EMCCs in Liguria, Italy. The study retrospectively examined the assigned...

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Comparison of Emergency Medical Dispatcher Stroke Identification and Paramedic On-Scene Stroke Assessment

Isabel Gardett, PhD, Christopher Olola, PhD, Greg Scott, MBA, EMD-QI, Meghan Broadbent, MS, Jeff J. Clawson, MD

Mar 22, 2017|AEDR 2017 Vol. 5 Issue 1|Original Research

Some have argued that there is no need for a dispatcher stroke evaluation because emergency medical services (EMS) responders can perform a more detailed, in-person stroke evaluation in the field. In fact, little or no research exists to determine whether dispatch stroke evaluations are actually redundant when compared with EMS field responder assessments. The purpose of this study is to determine whether some strokes identified by emergency medical dispatchers (EMDs) are not identified by field paramedics. The descriptive study utilized data from...

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The Description of Hierarchy Bias Concept in Emergency Dispatch Coding and its Implications for Accuracy in Response and Outcome-based Studies

Jeff J. Clawson, MD, Rich Saalsaa, Christopher Olola, PhD, Jerry Overton

Aug 01, 2015|AEDR 2015 Vol. 3 Issue 2|Concept Papers

The value of dispatch in modern Emergency Medical Services (EMS) systems cannot be understated. Among many other roles, an Emergency Medical Dispatcher (EMD) is responsible for accurate response selection. Response is based on EMD-assigned dispatch codes upon completion of caller-interrogation questions in a dispatch protocol system. When two or more signs, symptoms, or situational conditions are encountered in a calltaker evaluation, but are assigned and reported as a single, dispatch-defined code descriptor during the call-taking process by an EMD, a data hiding...

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