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Outcomes of Basic Versus Advanced Life Support for Out-of-Hospital Medical Emergencies.

ABSTRACT: Most Medicare patients seeking emergency medical transport are treated by ambulance providers trained in advanced life support (ALS). Evidence supporting the superiority of ALS over basic life support (BLS) is limited, but some studies suggest ALS may harm patients.To compare outcomes after ALS and BLS in out-of-hospital medical emergencies.Observational study with adjustment for propensity score weights and instrumental variable analyses based on county-level variations in ALS use.Traditional Medicare.20% random sample of Medicare beneficiaries from nonrural counties between 2006 and 2011 with major trauma, stroke, acute myocardial infarction (AMI), or respiratory failure.Neurologic functioning and survival to 30 days, 90 days, 1 year, and 2 years.Except in cases of AMI, patients showed superior unadjusted outcomes with BLS despite being older and having more comorbidities. In propensity score analyses, survival to 90 days among patients with trauma, stroke, and respiratory failure was higher with BLS than ALS (6.1 percentage points [95% CI, 5.4 to 6.8 percentage points] for trauma; 7.0 percentage points [CI, 6.2 to 7.7 percentage points] for stroke; and 3.7 percentage points [CI, 2.5 to 4.8 percentage points] for respiratory failure). Patients with AMI did not exhibit differences in survival at 30 days but had better survival at 90 days with ALS (1.0 percentage point [CI, 0.1 to 1.9 percentage points]). Neurologic functioning favored BLS for all diagnoses. Results from instrumental variable analyses were broadly consistent with propensity score analyses for trauma and stroke, showed no survival differences between BLS and ALS for respiratory failure, and showed better survival at all time points with BLS than ALS for patients with AMI.Only Medicare beneficiaries from nonrural counties were studied.Advanced life support is associated with substantially higher mortality for several acute medical emergencies than BLS.National Science Foundation, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and National Institutes of Health.

SUBMITTER: Sanghavi P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4945100 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Outcomes of Basic Versus Advanced Life Support for Out-of-Hospital Medical Emergencies.

Sanghavi Prachi P Jena Anupam B AB Newhouse Joseph P JP Zaslavsky Alan M AM

Annals of internal medicine 20151013 9

<h4>Background</h4>Most Medicare patients seeking emergency medical transport are treated by ambulance providers trained in advanced life support (ALS). Evidence supporting the superiority of ALS over basic life support (BLS) is limited, but some studies suggest ALS may harm patients.<h4>Objective</h4>To compare outcomes after ALS and BLS in out-of-hospital medical emergencies.<h4>Design</h4>Observational study with adjustment for propensity score weights and instrumental variable analyses based ...[more]

PMID: 26457627

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Project description:ObjectivesThis research aimed to answer the following questions: What are the costs of prehospital advanced life support (ALS) and prehospital critical care for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA)? What is the cost-effectiveness of prehospital ALS? What improvement in survival rates from OHCA would prehospital critical care need to achieve in order to be cost-effective?SettingA single National Health Service ambulance service and a charity-funded prehospital critical care service in England.ParticipantsThe patient population is adult, non-traumatic OHCA.MethodsWe combined data from previously published research with data provided by a regional ambulance service and air ambulance charity to create a decision tree model, coupled with a Markov model, of costs and outcomes following OHCA. We compared no treatment for OHCA to the current standard of care of prehospital ALS, and prehospital ALS to prehospital critical care. To reflect the uncertainty in the underlying data, we used probabilistic and two-way sensitivity analyses.ResultsCosts of prehospital ALS and prehospital critical care were £347 and £1711 per patient, respectively. When costs and outcomes of prehospital, in-hospital and postdischarge phase of OHCA care were combined, prehospital ALS was estimated to be cost-effective at £11 407/quality-adjusted life year. In order to be cost-effective in addition to ALS, prehospital critical care for OHCA would need to achieve a minimally economically important difference (MEID) in survival to hospital discharge of 3%-5%.ConclusionThis is the first economic analysis to address the question of cost-effectiveness of prehospital critical care following OHCA. While costs of either prehospital ALS and/or critical care per patient with OHCA are relatively low, significant costs are incurred during hospital treatment and after discharge in patients who survive. Knowledge of the MEID for prehospital critical care can guide future research in this field.Trial registration numberISRCTN18375201.

Dataset Information

Outcomes of Basic Versus Advanced Life Support for Out-of-Hospital Medical Emergencies.

Publications

Outcomes of Basic Versus Advanced Life Support for Out-of-Hospital Medical Emergencies.

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