how to practice and become proficient with pcr/radio report

[Sasha]

Depends on the area I guess.around here there's no trust between prehospital personnel and the hospital. Thus every patient going into the ER gets a detailed radio report.

Also, why should your turn over be any less detailed than your narrative?

The nurses here walk away if your report is too long. They really want age sex chief complaint and if they're stable or not and if they're not then they want a little more but still not much.

Hand off is where you go into details.

Written report is where it is idiot proof. My reports can be multipage. Doesn't help that I have big swoopy handwriting.

 

[JPINFV]

narratives need to be written so that anyone off the street can read it and comprehend it without any possibility for confusion/question; IE: "patient was secured to stretcher with all three belts tightened securely and shoulder straps in place"

nurses generally have a little more common sense in that aspect...

BS.
An EMS provider shouldn't be concerned because someone off the street might not understand medical terms.

Just because the EMS text books are written at an 8th grade level doesn't mean that EMS reports should be written at an 8th grade level.

 

[TheGodfather]

BS.
An EMS provider shouldn't be concerned because someone off the street might not understand medical terms.

Just because the EMS text books are written at an 8th grade level doesn't mean that EMS reports should be written at an 8th grade level.

oh i agree... I don't mean write it without use of terminology or educated context, more along the lines of list every little detail from patient contact to patient handoff to avoid "holes" that could be used against you from a litigation standpoint...

 

[adamjh3]

The nurses here walk away if your report is too long. They really want age sex chief complaint and if they're stable or not and if they're not then they want a little more but still not much.

Like I said, area dependent. Attached is what's expected out of an ALS radio report, except for the tiny part at the bottom that goes into run number etc.

There's online scanners for the hospital radios around here. listen to a single report and you'll see what I mean

And no, I don't work for AMR

 

[exodus]

Like I said, area dependent. Attached is what's expected out of an ALS radio report, except for the tiny part at the bottom that goes into run number etc.

There's online scanners for the hospital radios around here. listen to a single report and you'll see what I mean

And no, I don't work for AMR

Link to the scanner pleaseee!

Here, all I do is this:

This is AMR blah blah we are 5 out with a 54 yo male with non-traumatic left leg pain. The patient is a transfer from an urgent care and was diagnosed with a DVT and is being transferred for treatment and further assessment. Current vitals are 130/82, pulse of 84, respirations of 20. Again, we are 5 out, anything else?

Everytime I get, "Thank you, see you in 5." My partner got chewed out the other day for giving a full radio report

 

[adamjh3]

Link to the scanner pleaseee!

Sharp Grossmont pops up here from time to time. It also used to be on the Scanner Radio app, but I got rid of that about a year ago.

 

[Sasha]

That report would be with me

22 to (hospital)

Go ahead 22.

We are enroute with a 58yo male with a left leg dvt confirmed by doppler. Vitals stable. Eta less than 10 any further?

No further see you on arrival

 

[DesertMedic66]

My radio reports depend on the patient and where they are coming from. If its a 5150 hold it's

"This is EMT Bob on blah ambulance service unit 111 coming at you code 2 with a 34 year old female 5150 hold. Vitals are stable and patient is calm and non-aggressive. Our ETA is 10 mins. How copy and any additional?"

If the call is non IFT, non 5150 hold then I run down a list

Name and title, ambulance company and #, response mode, ETA, age of patient, gender, weight, Chief Complaint, Allergies, medical history, medications (I always say will give copy upon arrival), GCS, A&O status, B/P, Pulse, Resp, skins, cap refil, Pupils, Lung sounds if important, and any treatments started.

It can easily be said in 1-2 minutes.

This is what the hospitals and protocol requires:

 

[R99]

 

[systemet]

I vote for R99's.

 

[Sasha]

Why do they need a weight, history, allergies, etc in radio report?

 

[adamjh3]

Why do they need a weight, history, allergies, etc in radio report?

To prepare treatments for a critical patient, maybe? Just stabbing in the dark, but that seems most likely.

 

[DesertMedic66]

To prepare treatments for a critical patient, maybe? Just stabbing in the dark, but that seems most likely.

Yep. Weight is so they can get dosages of medications ready before we get to the hospital so things run smoother and quicker. Allergies is so they know if there is a medication they need to avoid. If the patient is in pain but allergic to morphine that is something the hospital should know so they can already have another pain medication at hand.

If I'm bringing in a possible CVA with facial droop, arm sway, slurred speech, unequal grips it is kind of important to tell the hospital if the patient has had a CVA before and if there are any lasting affects from it.

 

[Sasha]

To prepare treatments for a critical patient, maybe? Just stabbing in the dark, but that seems most likely.

No ones going to start predrawing weight based meds. Honestly bringing in patients and watching them being brought in they don't "prepare" for critical patients beyond calling for respiratory and clearing a bed.

Allergies you get in triage report. Med list in triage report medical hx in triage report. All those do in a radio report is clog up the radio.

 

[DesertMedic66]

No ones going to start predrawing weight based meds.

Yes.... Yeah they do..

 

[DesertMedic66]

No ones going to start predrawing weight based meds. Honestly bringing in patients and watching them being brought in they don't "prepare" for critical patients beyond calling for respiratory and clearing a bed.

Allergies you get in triage report. Med list in triage report medical hx in triage report. All those do in a radio report is clog up the radio.

It's different where you work then. If we bring in a critical patient they start setting everything up (the bed and room, extra staff, medications (RSI, pain, etc), the doctor will already be at bedside, tubes if the patient doesn't already have one.

One of the hospitals will have staff members outside so once we get the gurney out of the ambulance they take over compressions for us.

 

[JPINFV]

It's different where you work then. If we bring in a critical patient they start setting everything up (the bed and room, extra staff, medications (RSI, pain, etc), the doctor will already be at bedside, tubes if the patient doesn't already have one.

One of the hospitals will have staff members outside so once we get the gurney out of the ambulance they take over compressions for us.

There's a difference between getting the medications out and actually drawing them up. The staff is going to be going off of their own weight estimate, guaranteed.

 

[DesertMedic66]

There's a difference between getting the medications out and actually drawing them up. The staff is going to be going off of their own weight estimate, guaranteed.

I've seen it both ways. The medication already drawn up and ready to go and still in the vial.

 

[systemet]

I think this depends a lot on where you're transporting to. When I first started in EMS I used to take patients to a small town rural ER, almost 3 hours by ground from the nearest trauma center, and just a little too far for the helicopter to beat out a fixed wing. The ER had one RN. They called a family doc if someone sick came in. So they wanted a detailed report as soon as possible, because the RN was going to have to decide whether to bother the on-call physician at the family medicine clinic, or at home. And then they had to still get to the ER. Depending on the physician, that was where the problems began. We had some South Africans who were excellent, and some others guy who were probably fantastic at something, but it wasn't acute care.

Then I worked for a while in a larger city. The bigger hospitals wanted to know ahead of time, if possible, if the patient was intubated, a major trauma, or a true major medical, maybe a sick kid. Think pre-code, or acute CVA early enough to make a difference, STEMI, or obvious cardiogenic shock. Otherwise they didn't care. We didn't take too many sick patients to the medium-sized ERs, but they'd get a notification for STEMI or an intubated drug OD, or something similar. The rest of the stuff, they didn't care. Sicker people were walking through their door on a regular basis.

The forwarded information was pretty basic, usually, "30 year old male, multiple central stab wounds, no radial pulse, not-intubated", for example.

 

[Sasha]

There's a difference between getting the medications out and actually drawing them up. The staff is going to be going off of their own weight estimate, guaranteed.

Don't guesstimate here. The beds have scales.

For a critical patient here, a Dr will meet you at bedside and will get report directly. Sometimes respiratory will already be down there. That's about it.