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Utilization, Safety, and Technical Performance of a Telemedicine System for Prehospital Emergency Care: Observational Study.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:As a consequence of increasing emergency medical service (EMS) missions requiring an EMS physician on site, we had implemented a unique prehospital telemedical emergency service as a new structural component to the conventional physician-based EMS in Germany. OBJECTIVE:We sought to assess the utilization, safety, and technical performance of this telemedical emergency service. METHODS:We conducted a retrospective analysis of all primary emergency missions with telemedical consultation of an EMS physician in the City of Aachen (250,000 inhabitants) during the first 3 operational years of our tele-EMS system. Main outcome measures were the number of teleconsultations, number of complications, and number of transmission malfunctions during teleconsultations. RESULTS:The data of 6265 patients were analyzed. The number of teleconsultations increased during the run-in period of four quarters toward full routine operation from 152 to 420 missions per quarter. When fully operational, around the clock, and providing teleconsultations to 11 mobile ambulances, the number of teleconsultations further increased by 25.9 per quarter (95% CI 9.1-42.6; P=.009). Only 6 of 6265 patients (0.10%; 95% CI 0.04%-0.21%) experienced adverse events, all of them not inherent in the system of teleconsultations. Technical malfunctions of single transmission components occurred from as low as 0.3% (95% CI 0.2%-0.5%) during two-way voice communications to as high as 1.9% (95% CI 1.6%-2.3%) during real-time vital data transmissions. Complete system failures occurred in only 0.3% (95% CI 0.2%-0.6%) of all teleconsultations. CONCLUSIONS:The Aachen prehospital EMS is a frequently used, safe, and technically reliable system to provide medical care for emergency patients without an EMS physician physically present. Noninferiority of the tele-EMS physician compared with an on-site EMS physician needs to be demonstrated in a randomized trial.

SUBMITTER: Felzen M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6806125 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Utilization, Safety, and Technical Performance of a Telemedicine System for Prehospital Emergency Care: Observational Study.

Felzen Marc M Beckers Stefan Kurt SK Kork Felix F Hirsch Frederik F Bergrath Sebastian S Sommer Anja A Brokmann Jörg Christian JC Czaplik Michael M Rossaint Rolf R

Journal of medical Internet research 20191008 10

<h4>Background</h4>As a consequence of increasing emergency medical service (EMS) missions requiring an EMS physician on site, we had implemented a unique prehospital telemedical emergency service as a new structural component to the conventional physician-based EMS in Germany.<h4>Objective</h4>We sought to assess the utilization, safety, and technical performance of this telemedical emergency service.<h4>Methods</h4>We conducted a retrospective analysis of all primary emergency missions with te ...[more]

PMID: 31596244

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Project description:BackgroundTelemedicine offers a unique opportunity to improve coordination and administration for urgent patient care remotely. In an emergency setting, it has been used to support first responders by providing telephone or video consultation with specialists at hospitals and through the exchange of prehospital patient information. This technological solution is evolving rapidly, yet there is a concern that it is being implemented without a demonstrated clinical need and effectiveness as well as without a thorough economic evaluation.ObjectiveOur objective is to systematically review whether the clinical outcomes achieved, as reported in the literature, favor telemedicine decision support for medical interventions during prehospital care.MethodsThis systematic review included peer-reviewed journal articles. Searches of 7 databases and relevant reviews were conducted. Eligibility criteria consisted of studies that covered telemedicine as data- and information-sharing and two-way teleconsultation platforms, with the objective of supporting medical decisions (eg, diagnosis, treatment, and receiving hospital decision) in a prehospital emergency setting. Simulation studies and studies that included pediatric populations were excluded. The procedures in this review followed the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) statement. The Risk Of Bias In Non-randomised Studies-of Interventions (ROBINS-I) tool was used for the assessment of risk of bias. The results were synthesized based on predefined aspects of medical decisions that are made in a prehospital setting, which include diagnostic decision support, receiving facility decisions, and medical directions for treatment. All data extractions were done by at least two reviewers independently.ResultsOut of 42 full-text reviews, 7 were found eligible. Diagnostic support and medical direction and decision for treatments were often reported. A key finding of this review was the high agreement between prehospital diagnoses via telemedicine and final in-hospital diagnoses, as supported by quantitative evidence. However, a majority of the articles described the clinical value of having access to remote experts without robust quantitative data. Most telemedicine solutions were evaluated within a feasibility or short-term preliminary study. In general, the results were positive for telemedicine use; however, biases, due to preintervention confounding factors and a lack of documentation on quality assurance and protocol for telemedicine activation, make it difficult to determine the direct effect on patient outcomes.ConclusionsThe information-sharing capacity of telemedicine enables access to remote experts to support medical decision making on scene or in prolonged field care. The influence of human and technology factors on patient care is poorly understood and documented.

Project description:The benefits of a telemedical support system for prehospital emergency medical services include high-level emergency medical support at the push of a button: delegation of drug administration, diagnostic assistance, initiation of therapeutic measures, or choice of hospital destination. At various European EMS sites telemedical routine systems are shortly before implementation. The aim of this study was to investigate the long-term effects of implementing a tele-EMS system on the structural and procedural quality indicators and therefore performance of an entire EMS system. This retrospective study included all EMS missions in Aachen city between 2015 and 2021. Regarding structural indicators of the EMS system, we investigated the overall number of emergency missions with tele-EMS and onsite EMS physicians. Furthermore, we analyzed the distribution of tracer diagnosis and process quality with respect to the time spans on the scene, time until teleconsultation, duration of teleconsultation, prehospital engagement time, and number of simultaneous teleconsultations. During the 7-year study period, 229,384 EMS missions were completed. From 2015 to 2021, the total number of EMS missions increased by 8.5%. A tele-EMS physician was consulted on 23,172 (10.1%) missions. The proportion of telemedicine missions increased from 8.6% in 2015 to 12.9% in 2021. Teleconsultations for missions with tracer diagnoses decreased during from 43.7% to 30.7%, and the proportion of non-tracer diagnoses increased from 56.3% to 69.3%. The call duration for teleconsultation decreased from 12.07 min in 2015 to 9.42 min in 2021. For every fourth mission, one or more simultaneous teleconsultations were conducted by the tele-EMS physician on duty. The implementation and routine use of a tele-EMS system increased the availability of onsite EMS physicians and enabled immediate onsite support for paramedics. Parallel teleconsultations, reduction in call duration, and increase in ambulatory onsite treatments over the years demonstrate the increasing experience of paramedics and tele-EMS physicians with the system in place. A prehospital tele-EMS system is important for mitigating the current challenges in the prehospital emergency care sector.

Project description:ObjectiveA vital component of a prehospital emergency care system is getting an injured patient to the right hospital at the right time. Process and information flow mapping are recognised methods to show where efficiencies can be made. We aimed to understand the process and information flows used by the prehospital emergency service in transporting community emergencies in Rwanda in order to identify areas for improvement.DesignTwo facilitated process/information mapping workshops were conducted. Process maps were produced in real time during discussions and shared with participants for their agreement. They were further validated by field observations.SettingThe study took place in two prehospital care settings serving predominantly rural and predominantly urban patients.Participants24 healthcare professionals from various cadres. Field observations were done on 49 emergencies across both sites.ResultsTwo maps were produced, and four main process stages were described: (1) call triage by the dispatch/call centre team, (2) scene triage by the ambulance team, (3) patient monitoring by the ambulance team on the way to the health facility and (4) handover process at the health facility. The first key finding was that the rural site had multiple points of entry into the system for emergency patients, whereas the urban system had one point of entry (the national emergency number); processes were otherwise similar between sites. The second was that although large amounts of information were collected to inform decision-making about which health facility to transfer patients to, participants found it challenging to articulate the intellectual process by which they used this to make decisions; guidelines were not used for decision-making.DiscussionWe have identified several areas of the prehospital care processes where there can be efficiencies. To make efficiencies in the decision-making process and produce a standard approach for all patients will require protocolising care pathways.

Project description:RationaleEarly antibiotics improve outcomes for patients with sepsis. Factors influencing antibiotic timing in emergency department (ED) sepsis remain unclear.ObjectivesDetermine the relationship between prehospital level of care of patients with sepsis and ED door-to-antibiotic time.MethodsThis retrospective cohort study comprised patients admitted from the community to an academic ED June 2009 to February 2015 with fluid-refractory sepsis or septic shock. Transfer patients and those whose antibiotics began before ED arrival or after ED discharge were excluded. We used multivariable regression to evaluate the association between the time from ED arrival to antibiotic initiation and prehospital level of care, defined as the highest level of emergency medical services received: none, basic life support (BLS) ambulance, or advanced life support (ALS) ambulance. We measured variation in this association when hypotension was or was not present by ED arrival.ResultsAmong 361 community-dwelling patients with sepsis, the level of prehospital care correlated with illness severity. ALS-treated patients received antibiotics faster than patients who did not receive prehospital care (median, 103 [interquartile range, 75 to 135] vs. 144 [98 to 251] minutes, respectively) or BLS-only patients (168 [100-250] minutes; P < 0.001 for each pairwise comparison with ALS). This pattern persisted after multivariable adjustment, where ALS care (-43 min; 95% confidence interval [CI], -84 to -2; P = 0.033) but not BLS-only care (-4 min; 95% CI, -41 to +34; P = 0.97) was associated with less antibiotic delay compared with no prehospital care. ALS-treated patients more frequently received antibiotics within 3 hours of ED arrival (91%) compared with walk-in patients (62%; adjusted odds ratio, 3.11; 95% CI, 1.20 to 8.03; P = 0.015) or BLS-treated patients (56%; adjusted odds ratio, 4.51; 95% CI, 1.89 to 11.35; P < 0.001). ALS-treated patients started antibiotics faster than walk-in patients in the absence of hypotension by ED arrival (-41 min; 95% CI, -110 to -13; P = 0.009) but not when hypotension was present (+25 min; 95% CI, -43 to +92; P = 0.66).ConclusionsPrehospital ALS but not BLS-only care was associated with faster antibiotic initiation for patients with sepsis without hypotension. Process redesign for non-ALS patients may improve antibiotic timeliness for ED sepsis.

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Utilization, Safety, and Technical Performance of a Telemedicine System for Prehospital Emergency Care: Observational Study.

Publications

Utilization, Safety, and Technical Performance of a Telemedicine System for Prehospital Emergency Care: Observational Study.

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