Communication Errors in Dispatch of Air Medical Transport

CALL TO ECLS-Acronym for Reporting Patients for Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Procedure from Prehospital Setting to Destination Centers

The acronym CALL TO ECLS has been proposed as a potential tool to support decision-making in critical communication moments when qualifying a patient for the ECPR procedure. The aim of this study is to assess the accuracy of the acronym and validate its content. Validation is crucial to ensure that the acronym is theoretically correct and includes the necessary information that must be conveyed by EMS during the qualification of a patient with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest for ECMO. A survey was conducted using the LimeSurvey platform through the Survey Research System of the Jagiellonian University Medical College over a 6-month period (from December 2022 to May 2023). Usefulness, importance, clarity, and unambiguity were rated on a 4-point Likert scale, from 1 (not useful, not important, unclear, ambiguous) to 4 (useful, important, clear, unambiguous). On the 4-point scale, the Content Validity Index (I-CVI) was calculated as the percentage of subject matter experts who rated the criterion as having a level of importance/clarity/validity/uniqueness of 3 or 4. The Scale-level Content Validity Index (S-CVI) based on the average method was computed as the average of I-CVI scores (S-CVI-AVE) for all considered criteria (protocol). The number of fully completed surveys by experts was 35, and partial completion was obtained in 63 cases. All criteria were deemed significant/useful, with I-CVI coefficients ranging from 0.87 to 0.97. Similarly, the importance of all criteria was confirmed, as all I-CVI coefficients were greater than 0.78 (ranging from 0.83 to 0.97). The average I-CVI score for the ten considered criteria in terms of usefulness/significance and importance exceeded 0.9, indicating high validity of the tool/protocol/acronym. Based on the survey results and analysis of responses provided by experts, a second version was created, incorporating additional explanations. In Criterion 10, an explanation was added-"Signs of life"-during conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ROSC, motor response during CPR). It has been shown that the acronym CALL TO ECLS, according to experts, is accurate and contains the necessary content, and can serve as a system to facilitate communication between the pre-hospital environment and specialized units responsible for qualifying patients for the ECPR.

Development of an Approach to Assessing Pediatric Fellows' Transport Medical Control Skills

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

Pediatric interfacility transport teams facilitate access to subspecialty care, and physicians often guide management remotely as transport medical control (TMC). Pediatric subspecialty fellows frequently perform TMC duties, but tools assessing competency are lacking. Our objective was to develop content validity for the items required to assess pediatric subspecialty fellows' TMC skills.

METHODS

We conducted a modified Delphi process among transport and fellow education experts in pediatric critical care medicine, pediatric emergency medicine, neonatal-perinatal medicine, and pediatric hospital medicine. The study team generated an initial list of items on the basis of a literature review and personal experience. A modified Delphi panel of transport experts was recruited to participate in 3 rounds of anonymous, online voting on the importance of the items using a 3-point Likert scale (marginal, important, essential). We defined consensus for inclusion as ≥80% agreement that an item was important/essential and consensus for exclusion as ≥80% agreement that an item was marginal.

RESULTS

The study team of 20 faculty drafted an initial list of items. Ten additional experts in each subspecialty served on the modified Delphi panel. Thirty-six items met the criteria for inclusion, with widespread agreement across subspecialties. Only 1 item, "discussed bed availability," met the criteria for inclusion among some subspecialties but not others. The study team consolidated the final list into 26 items for ease of use.

CONCLUSIONS

Through a consensus-based process among transport experts, we generated content validity for the items required to assess pediatric subspecialty fellows' TMC skills.

Transport Medical Control Education for Pediatric Critical Care Fellows: A National Needs Assessment Study

OBJECTIVES

Characterize transport medical control education in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine fellowship.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional survey study.

SETTING

Pediatric Critical Care Medicine fellowship programs in the United States.

SUBJECTS

Pediatric Critical Care Medicine fellowship program directors.

INTERVENTIONS

None.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

We achieved a 74% (53/72) response rate. A majority of programs (85%) require fellows to serve as transport medical control, usually while carrying out other clinical responsibilities and sometimes without supervision. Fellows at most programs (80%) also accompany the transport team on patient retrievals. Most respondents (72%) reported formalized transport medical control teaching, primarily in a didactic format (76%). Few programs (25%) use a standardized assessment tool. Transport medical control was identified as requiring all six Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education competencies, with emphasis on professionalism and interpersonal and communication skills.

CONCLUSIONS

Transport medical control responsibilities are common for Pediatric Critical Care Medicine fellows, but training is inconsistent, assessment is not standardized, and supervision may be lacking. Fellow performance in transport medical control may help inform assessment in multiple domains of competencies. Further study is needed to identify effective methods for transport medical control education.

Defining Best Practices for Interhospital Transfers

INTRODUCTION

Interhospital transfers (IHT) are important yet high-risk transitions in care. Variable IHT processes and a lack of clarity around best practice may contribute to risk. To define the best practice principles for IHTs and identify improvement opportunities in the transfer process to our hospital's Cardiology services.

METHODS

Through literature review, interviews with experts and key stakeholders, a survey of health care professionals at our institution, and a failure modes effect analysis, we identified themes in IHT best practices and improvement opportunities.

RESULTS

We identified six critical elements of IHT: (1) initiation of transfer request; (2) the management of transfer request and information exchange; (3) updates between transfer acceptance and patient transport; (4) transport; (5) patient admission and information availability; and (6) measurement, evaluation, and feedback. Improvement opportunities were found in all elements.

CONCLUSIONS

The standardization of these six critical elements may improve the safety of IHTs.

Interhospital transfer patients discharged by academic hospitalists and general internists: Characteristics and outcomes

BACKGROUND

Prior work suggests interhospital transfer (IHT) may be a risky event. Outcomes for patients transferred from another acute care institution and discharged by hospitalists and general internists at academic health systems are not well described.

OBJECTIVE

Investigate the characteristics and outcomes of IHT patients compared with patients admitted from the emergency department (ED) to academic health systems.

DESIGN

Retrospective cohort study.

SETTING/PATIENTS

A total of 885,392 adult inpatients discharged by hospitalists or general internal medicine physicians from 158 academic medical centers and affiliated hospitals participating in the University HealthSystem Consortium Clinical Database and Resource Manager from April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012.

METHODS

Patient cohorts were defined by admission source: those from another acute care institution were IHTs, and those coming through the ED whose source of origination was not another hospital or ambulatory surgery site were ED admissions. In-hospital mortality was our primary outcome. We analyzed our data using descriptive statistics, t tests, χ(2) tests, and logistic regression.

RESULTS

Compared with ED admissions, IHT patients had a longer average length of stay, higher proportion of time spent in the intensive care unit, higher costs per hospital day, lower frequency of discharges home, and higher inpatient mortality (4.1% vs 1.8%, P < 0.01). After adjusting for patient characteristics and risk of mortality measures, IHT patients had a higher risk of in-hospital death (odds ratio: 1.36, 95% confidence interval: 1.29-1.43).

CONCLUSIONS

In this large national sample, IHT status is independently associated with inpatient mortality.

Patient safety in emergency medical services: a systematic review of the literature

BACKGROUND

Preventable harm from medical care has been extensively documented in the inpatient setting. Emergency medical services (EMS) providers care for patients in dynamic and challenging environments; prehospital emergency care is a field that represents an area of high risk for errors and harm, but has received relatively little attention in the patient safety literature.

OBJECTIVE

To identify the threats to patient safety unique to the EMS environment and interventions that mitigate those threats, we completed a systematic review of the literature.

METHODS

We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) for combinations of key EMS and patient safety terms composed by a pan-canadian expert panel using a year limit of 1999 to 2011. We excluded commentaries, opinions, letters, abstracts, and non-english publications. Two investigators performed an independent hierarchical screening of titles, abstracts, and full-text articles blinded to source. We used the kappa statistic to examine interrater agreement. Any differences were resolved by consensus.

RESULTS

We retrieved 5,959 titles, and 88 publications met the inclusion criteria and were categorized into seven themes: adverse events and medication errors (22 articles), clinical judgment (13), communication (6), ground vehicle safety (9), aircraft safety (6), interfacility transport (16), and intubation (16). Two articles were randomized controlled trials; the remainder were systematic reviews, prospective observational studies, retrospective database/chart reviews, qualitative interviews, or surveys. The kappa statistics for titles, abstracts, and full-text articles were 0.65, 0.79, and 0.87, respectively, for the first search and 0.60, 0.74, and 0.85 for the second.

CONCLUSIONS

We found a paucity of scientific literature exploring patient safety in EMS. Research is needed to improve our understanding of problem magnitude and threats to patient safety and to guide interventions.