Fewer Paramedics means more lives saved

[ffemt8978]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-05-21-paramedics_x.htm

Updated 5/21/2006 8:58 PM ET
By Robert Davis, USA TODAY

Cities that deploy fewer paramedics - who in turn treat more victims of
sudden cardiac arrest - save more lives, according to a new study.

Cardiac-arrest survival rates, considered a key measure of an emergency
medical service's performance, vary from city to city. The study of
five unidentified cities sought to find factors that have an impact on
survival.

"Our data seem to show that cities with the fewest number of paramedics
for a given population are more likely to have higher survival rates," says
Michael Sayre of the emergency-medicine department at Ohio State
University in Columbus. "Having a smaller number of paramedics who are very highly
trained is probably a better strategy for delivering good patient
outcomes."

<snip>

The report, presented Friday at the Society for Academic Emergency
Medicine in San Francisco, supports the similar findings of a USA TODAY study
last year that called into question the national trend of putting paramedics
on fire engines, often the first to reach the scene of an emergency.

<snip>

In fact, new study found that more lives are saved in the cities with
fewer paramedics even when those responders arrive as much as five minutes
later than less-trained rescuers.

Among the 50 largest cities in America, those that save the highest
percentage of cardiac-arrest victims - Seattle, Boston, Oklahoma City
and Tulsa - use such a tiered response, USA TODAY found in an investigation
published in 2003.

Researchers believe the individual paramedics in such cities deal with
a higher volume of critical cases, keeping sharp such tricky skills as
intubation, the insertion of a tube into the trachea to open an airway.

<snip>

"Nobody knows what is the right number of paramedics per 100,000
population, and what is the best way to deploy the paramedics you already have in
order to save the most lives," says Marc Eckstein, medical director for the
Los Angeles Fire Department. "The need for research to answer these
questions has never been greater."

So, what do you guys think of this report?

 

[disassociative]

...

hmm, what a strange occurence. You would think more paramedics = more survival rates. In my district; they won't let a rig go out without at least 1 paramedic on board.

 

[Guardian]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-05-21-paramedics_x.htm


So, what do you guys think of this report?

Very interesting!!!!!!!!!!!!!, i'm going to have to think about this one for a while, lots of variables

 

[ffemt8978]

Very interesting!!!!!!!!!!!!!, i'm going to have to think about this one for a while, lots of variables

Yeah, way more variables than the number of paramedics in a city. Things like down time to CPR, downtime to AED, BLS care provided, response times, etc.... Any of these factors can have a marked effect on cardiac arrest survival.

 

[Ridryder911]

Typical B.S. journalism, they don't print or interpret the whole study only the points they like to make head lines. As well, the study has shown to be flawed and population plus variables as standard deviation to be off set. The variable to be null.

That is why before a study could be published should be thoroughly reviewed by medical peers.. and then disseminated appropriately and interpreted.

Be safe,
R/.r 911

 

[Luno]

Questionable Journalism

Yeah, I'd agree, it's the typical "most serial killers eat captain crunch..." type of argument....

 

[Jon]

I heard about this at EMS Today '05 in Philly - Bob Davis spoke, and almost got lynched The study compares places like LA City - Medics on many engines and ambulances... and Boston - a city with VERY few medics.

The arguement is similar to the "Flight Medic Syndrome" I'm sure you've seen - flight providers have their sh*t together and are VERY good at what they do, because they do it a lot. LA City's medics intubate rarely - because all the tubes are spread out over ALL the medics... medics sometimes tube 3 or fewer times a year! - in Boston, the medics are ONLY dealing with sick patients, and the BLS/ILS providers can handle most things without needing ALS.

 

[RALS504]

I agree with all of the previous posts, but even if the study is proven true there are more reasons to use a rapid responds ALS system.( i.e. trauma, pain control, and siezures to name a few) This should be a remind to all of use to practice and use our perisable skills.