dr-exmedic.com

There are many, many studies which are criticized for studying the obvious.  If you read the conclusion reached by this study, you would be forgiven for thinking that it is one of those:

Conclusions. The out-of-hospital intubation environment is significantly different from that of in-hospital providers. Paramedics frequently have a poor physical operating environment and encounter significant distractions while trying to perform endotracheal intubation.

Actually, the study isn’t really that much more than putting a handle on the obvious.  Yes, it’s obvious that prehospital intubations have fundamentally different conditions than intubations in the hospital (where you can control patient position, lighting, temperature, etc).  What was most entertaining was not the conclusion, but what proportion of calls had which distraction:  bystanders 14.1%, unsafe scene 0.2%, weather 1.5%, other 4.6%, none 79.5%.

What was also interesting was that more than half the intubation attempts were done kneeling at the patient’s head, which (at least as I see it) would give a less-than-optimal view for patients on the floor.  Perhaps I just need to spend some time playing to figure out exactly what they’re doing.

Filed under: EMS Research