dr-exmedic.com

A recent research letter detailed a small, otherwise unpublished study out of Virginia which purported to study information transfer from EMS providers to the ED staff.  While the group studied several different types of patient, the only group detailed in the letter was crash victims.  This makes sense, as this is the group most likely to have later treatment affected by the conditions on scene. 

The authors themselves note fatal flaws in the study–the biggest was counting information that wasn’t needed, and therefore not transferred, as “missing.”  (For example, a crew walking in a patient that they described as being in a minor collision at parking-lot speeds would have been listed as not having provided information about entrapment or extrication time, even though such information was implied.)  This is how the study found that only 44% of pertinent data points were given by incoming crews–an invalid number.

Interestingly, in many cases, “physicians were satisfied with reports they never even heard.”  This makes me wonder–is this because docs don’t want to listen to the medics, or because they’re satisfied with the notes made when a medic gives report to a nurse?