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Background: In a two-tier Emergency Medical Services response system with ambulances and physician-staffed rapid response vehicles, both units are ideally dispatched simultaneously when a physician is needed. However, when advanced resources are dispatched secondarily, a meeting point (rendezvous) is established to reduce time to advanced care. This study aims to assess the extent of rendezvous tasks, patient groups involved and physician contribution when rendezvous is activated between the primary ambulances and rapid response vehicles in the Capital Region of Denmark. Methods: We analysed prehospital electronic patient record data from all rendezvous cases in the Capital Region of Denmark in 2018. Variables included the number of times rendezvous was activated, patient demographics, dispatch criteria, on-scene diagnosis, and prehospital treatment. Result: Ambulances requested rendezvous 2340 times, corresponding to 1.3% of all ambulance tasks and 10.7% of all rapid response vehicle dispatches. The most frequently used dispatch criterion was unclear problem n = 561 (28.8%), followed by cardiovascular n = 439 (22.5%) and neurological n = 392 (20.1%). The physician contributed with technical skills like medication n = 760 (39.0%) and advanced airway management n = 161 (8.3%), as well as non-technical skills like team leading during advanced life support n = 152 (7.8%) and decision to end futile treatment and death certificate issuance n = 73 (3.7%). Conclusion: Rendezvous between ambulances and physician-staffed rapid response vehicles was activated in 1.3% of all ambulance cases corresponding to 10.7% of all RRV dispatches in 2018. The three largest patient groups in rendezvous presented cardiovascular, neurological, and respiratory problems. The prehospital physician contributed with technical skills like medication and advanced airway management as well as non-technical skills like team leading during advanced life support and ending futile treatment. The high

OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether real-time ventilation feedback would improve provider adherence to ventilation guidelines.DESIGN: Non-blinded randomised controlled simulation trial.SETTING: One Emergency Medical Service trust in Copenhagen.PARTICIPANTS: 32 ambulance crews consisting of 64 on-duty basic or advanced life support paramedics from Copenhagen Emergency Medical Service.INTERVENTION: Participant exposure to real-time ventilation feedback during simulated out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was ventilation quality, defined as ventilation guideline-adherence to ventilation rate (8-10 bpm) and tidal volume (500-600 ml) delivered simultaneously.RESULTS: The intervention group performed ventilations in adherence with ventilation guideline recommendations for 75.3% (Interquartile range (IQR) 66.2%-82.9%) of delivered ventilations, compared to 22.1% (IQR 0%-44.0%) provided by the control group. When controlling for participant covariates, adherence to ventilation guidelines was 44.7% higher in participants receiving ventilation feedback. Analysed separately, the intervention group performed a ventilation guideline-compliant rate in 97.4% (IQR 97.1%-100%) of delivered ventilations, versus 66.7% (IQR 40.9%-77.9%) for the control group. For tidal volume compliance, the intervention group reached 77.5% (IQR 64.9%-83.8%) of ventilations within target compared to 53.4% (IQR 8.4%-66.7%) delivered by the control group.CONCLUSIONS: Real-time ventilation feedback increased guideline compliance for both ventilation rate and tidal volume (combined and as individual parameters) in a simulated OHCA setting. Real-time feedback has the potential to improve manual ventilation quality and may allow providers to avoid harmful hyperventilation.

Background: The Danish Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) is part of the Danish Emergency Medical Services System serving 5.7 million citizens with 1% living on islands not connected to the mainland by road. HEMS is dispatched based on pre-defined criteria including severity and urgency, and moreover to islands for less urgent cases, when rapid transport to further care is needed. The study aim was to characterize patient and sociodemographic factors, comorbidity and use of healthcare services for patients with HEMS missions to islands versus mainland. Methods: Descriptive study of data from the HEMS database in a three-year period from 1 October 2014 to 30 September 2017. All missions in which a patient was either treated on scene or transported by HEMS were included. Results: Of 5776 included HEMS missions, 1023 (17.7%) were island missions. In total, 90.2% of island missions resulted in patient transport by HEMS compared with 62.1% of missions to the mainland. Disease severity was serious or life-threatening in 34.7% of missions to islands compared with 65.1% of missions to mainland and less interventions were performed by HEMS on island missions. The disease pattern differed with more “Other diseases” registered on islands compared with the mainland where cardiovascular diseases and trauma were the leading causes of contact. Patients from islands were older than patients from the mainland. Sociodemographic characteristics varied between inhabiting island patients and mainland patients: more island patients lived alone, less were employed, more were retired, and more had low income. In addition, residing island patients had to a higher extend severe comorbidity and more contacts to general practitioners and hospitals compared with the mainland patients. Conclusions: HEMS missions to islands count for 17.7% of HEMS missions and 90.2% of island missions result in patient transport. The island patients encountered by HEMS are less severely diseased or i

Traumatic spinal cord injury is a relatively rare injury in Denmark but may result in serious neurological consequences. For decades, prehospital spinal stabilisation with a rigid cervical collar and a hard backboard has been considered to be the most appropriate procedure to prevent secondary spinal cord injuries during patient transportation. However, the procedure has been questioned in recent years, due to the lack of high-quality studies supporting its efficacy. A national interdisciplinary task force was therefore established to provide updated clinical guidelines on prehospital procedures for spinal stabilisation of adult trauma patients in Denmark. The guidelines are based on a systematic review of the literature and grading of the evidence, in addition to a standardised consensus process.This process yielded five main recommendations:A strong recommendation against spinal stabilisation of patients with isolated penetrating trauma; a weak recommendation against the prehospital use of a rigid cervical collar and a hard backboard for ABCDE-stable patients; and a weak recommendation for the use of a vacuum mattress for patient transportation. Finally, our group recommends the use of our clinical algorithm to ensure good clinical practice.

BACKGROUND: Prioritization of acutely ill patients in the Emergency Department remains a challenge. We aimed to evaluate whether routine blood tests can predict mortality in unselected patients in an emergency department and to compare risk prediction with a formalized triage algorithm.METHODS: A prospective observational cohort study of 12,661 consecutive admissions to the Emergency Department of Nordsjælland University Hospital during two separate periods in 2010 (primary cohort, n = 6279) and 2013 (validation cohort, n = 6383). Patients were triaged in five categories by a formalized triage algorithm. All patients with a full routine biochemical screening (albumin, creatinine, c-reactive protein, haemoglobin, lactate dehydrogenase, leukocyte count, potassium, and sodium) taken at triage were included. Information about vital status was collected from the Danish Central Office of Civil registration. Multiple logistic regressions were used to predict 30-day mortality. Validation was performed by applying the regression models on the 2013 validation cohort.RESULTS: Thirty-day mortality was 5.3%. The routine blood tests had a significantly stronger discriminative value on 30-day mortality compared to the formalized triage (AUC 88.1 [85.7;90.5] vs. 63.4 [59.1;67.5], p < 0.01). Risk stratification by routine blood tests was able to identify a larger number of low risk patients (n = 2100, 30-day mortality 0.1% [95% CI 0.0;0.3%]) compared to formalized triage (n = 1591, 2.8% [95% CI 2.0;3.6%]), p < 0.01.CONCLUSIONS: Routine blood tests were strongly associated with 30-day mortality in acutely ill patients and discriminatory ability was significantly higher than with a formalized triage algorithm. Thus routine blood tests allowed an improved risk stratification of patients presenting in an emergency department.

Background The prognostic value of blood lactate as a predictor of adverse outcome in the acutely ill patient is unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate if a peripheral venous lactate measurement, taken at admission, is associated with in-hospital mortality in acutely ill patients with all diagnosis. Furthermore, we wanted to investigate if the test improves a triage model in terms of predicting in-hospital mortality. Methods We retrieved a cohort of 2272 adult patients from a prospectively gathered acute admission database. We performed regression analysis to evaluate the association between the relevant covariates and the outcome measure: in-hospital mortality. Results Lactate as a continuous variable was a risk for in-hospital mortality with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.40 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.25–1.57, P < 0.0001]. OR for in-hospital mortality increased with increasing lactate levels from 2.97 (95% CI 1.55–5.72, P < 0.001) for lactate between 2 mmol/l and 4 mmol/l, to 7.77 (95% CI 3.23–18.66, P < 0.0001) for lactate > 4 mmol/l. If the condition was non-compensated (i.e. pH < 7.35), OR for in-hospital mortality increased to 19.99 (7.26–55.06, P < 0.0001). Patient with a blood lactate at 4 mmol/l or more had a risk of in-hospital mortality equivalent to the patients in the most urgent triage category. Conclusion We found elevated admission peripheral venous lactate to be independently associated with in-hospital mortality in the acutely ill patient admitted to the emergency department. Patients with a lactate > 4 mmol/l at hospital admission should be considered triaged to the most urgent triage category., BACKGROUND: The prognostic value of blood lactate as a predictor of adverse outcome in the acutely ill patient is unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate if a peripheral venous lactate measurement, taken at admission, is associated with in-hospital mortality in acutely ill patients with all diagnosis. Furthermore, we wanted to investigate if the test improves a triage model in terms of predicting in-hospital mortality.METHODS: We retrieved a cohort of 2272 adult patients from a prospectively gathered acute admission database. We performed regression analysis to evaluate the association between the relevant covariates and the outcome measure: in-hospital mortality.RESULTS: Lactate as a continuous variable was a risk for in-hospital mortality with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.40 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.25-1.57, P<0.0001]. OR for in-hospital mortality increased with increasing lactate levels from 2.97 (95% CI 1.55-5.72, P<0.001) for lactate between 2 mmol/l and 4 mmol/l, to 7.77 (95% CI 3.23-18.66, P<0.0001) for lactate>4 mmol/l. If the condition was non-compensated (i.e. pH<7.35), OR for in-hospital mortality increased to 19.99 (7.26-55.06, P<0.0001). Patient with a blood lactate at 4 mmol/l or more had a risk of in-hospital mortality equivalent to the patients in the most urgent triage category.CONCLUSION: We found elevated admission peripheral venous lactate to be independently associated with in-hospital mortality in the acutely ill patient admitted to the emergency department. Patients with a lactate>4 mmol/l at hospital admission should be considered triaged to the most urgent triage category.

BACKGROUND: Assessment and treatment of the acutely ill patient have improved by introducing systematic assessment and accelerated protocols for specific patient groups. Triage systems are widely used, but few studies have investigated the ability of the triage systems in predicting outcome in the unselected acute population. The aim of this study was to quantify the association between the main component of the Hillerod Acute Process Triage (HAPT) system and the outcome measures; Admission to Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and in-hospital mortality, and to identify the vital signs, scored and categorized at admission, that are most strongly associated with the outcome measures. METHODS: The HAPT system is a minor modification of the Swedish Adaptive Process Triage (ADAPT) and ranks patients into five level colour-coded triage categories. Each patient is assigned a triage category for the two main descriptors; vital signs, Tvitals, and presenting complaint, Tcomplaint. The more urgent of the two determines the final triage category, Tfinal. We retrieved 6279 unique adult patients admitted through the Emergency Department (ED) from the Acute Admission Database. We performed regression analysis to evaluate the association between the covariates and the outcome measures. RESULTS: The covariates, Tvitals, Tcomplaint and Tfinal were all significantly associated with ICU admission and in-hospital mortality, the odds increasing with the urgency of the triage category. The vital signs best predicting in-hospital mortality were saturation of peripheral oxygen (SpO2), respiratory rate (RR), systolic blood pressure (BP) and Glasgow Coma Score (GCS). Not only the type, but also the number of abnormal vital signs, were predictive for adverse outcome. The presenting complaints associated with the highest in-hospital mortality were 'dyspnoea' (11.5 %) and 'altered level of consciousness' (10.6 %). More than half of the patients had a Tcomplaint more urgent than Tvitals, the o

BACKGROUND: Management and care of the acutely ill patient have improved over the last years due to introduction of systematic assessment and accelerated treatment protocols. We have, however, sparse knowledge of the association between patient status at admission to hospital and patient outcome. A likely explanation is the difficulty in retrieving all relevant information from one database. The objective of this article was 1) to describe the formation and design of the 'Acute Admission Database', and 2) to characterize the cohort included. METHODS: All adult patients triaged at the Emergency Department at Hillerod Hospital and admitted either to the observationary unit or to a general ward in-hospital were prospectively included during a period of 22 weeks. The triage system used was a Danish adaptation of the Swedish triage system, ADAPT. Data from 3 different data sources was merged using a unique identifier, the Central Personal Registry number; 1) Data from patient admission, time and date, vital signs, presenting complaint and triage category, 2) Blood sample results taken at admission, including a venous acid-base status, and 3) Outcome measures, e.g. length of stay, admission to Intensive Care Unit, and mortality within 7 and 28 days after admission. RESULTS: In primary triage, patients were categorized as red (4.4%), orange (25.2%), yellow (38.7%) and green (31.7%). Abnormal vital signs were present at admission in 25% of the patients, most often temperature (10.5%), saturation of peripheral oxygen (9.2%), Glasgow Coma Score (6.6%) and respiratory rate (4.8%). A venous acid-base status was obtained in 43% of all patients. The majority (78%) had a pH within the normal range (7.35-7.45), 15% had acidosis (pH <7.35) and 7% had alkalosis (pH > 7.45). Median length of stay was 2 days (range 1-123). The proportion of patients admitted to Intensive Care Unit was 1.6% (95% CI 1.2-2.0), 1.8% (95% CI 1.5-2.2) died within 7 days, and 4.2% (95% CI 3.7

BACKGROUND: Using blood lactate monitoring for risk assessment in the critically ill patient remains controversial. Some of the discrepancy is due to uncertainty regarding the appropriate reference interval, and whether to perform a single lactate measurement as a screening method at admission to the hospital, or serial lactate measurements. Furthermore there is no consensus whether the sample should be drawn from arterial, peripheral venous, or capillary blood. The aim of this review was: 1) To examine whether blood lactate levels are predictive for in-hospital mortality in patients in the acute setting, i.e. patients assessed pre-hospitally, in the trauma centre, emergency department, or intensive care unit. 2) To examine the agreement between arterial, peripheral venous, and capillary blood lactate levels in patients in the acute setting. METHODS: We performed a systematic search using PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and CINAHL up to April 2011. 66 articles were considered potentially relevant and evaluated in full text, of these ultimately 33 articles were selected. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The literature reviewed supported blood lactate monitoring as being useful for risk assessment in patients admitted acutely to hospital, and especially the trend, achieved by serial lactate sampling, is valuable in predicting in-hospital mortality. All patients with a lactate at admission above 2.5 mM should be closely monitored for signs of deterioration, but patients with even lower lactate levels should be considered for serial lactate monitoring. The correlation between lactate levels in arterial and venous blood was found to be acceptable, and venous sampling should therefore be encouraged, as the risk and inconvenience for this procedure is minimal for the patient. The relevance of lactate guided therapy has to be supported by more studies.