Load and go for cardiac arrest

medicaltransient

medicaltransient

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I work for an EMS agency that still practices medicine from a decade ago and I am trying to convince my boss that we should not be pushing people out the door when we can be performing compressions and cardioverting. I have been collecting research to show him please help me with my collection. If you know of any studies please post or point me that way. Have a wonderful day!
 
I have never met him and don't expect anything more than a signature from the guy.
 
Just tell them to follow AHA guidelines. Load and go went out the window years ago. All the research shows better outcomes by working them in place.
 
medicaltransient said:
I have never met him and don't expect anything more than a signature from the guy.
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Is that your implication? My director is a phone call away, as most should be. You're practicing under their license and if there's a problem, their ears should be open.
 
I bet bloodletting is under the ALS scope of practice with your agency too. Seriously, you should bring it up to someone- your protocols are killing people.
 
medicaltransient said:
I work for an EMS agency that still practices medicine from a decade ago and I am trying to convince my boss that we should not be pushing people out the door when we can be performing compressions and cardioverting. I have been collecting research to show him please help me with my collection. If you know of any studies please post or point me that way. Have a wonderful day!
Click to expand...

This is what happens in organizations that don't measure outcomes. There's nothing to prove that the system is underperforming. So now you have to show that a change in practice is warranted. It would be better if you knew your survival rate for witnessed VF was 15% or 20%. Then a reasonable person would ask why survival is 2 to 3 times higher in other EMS systems. You could go about discovering best practices in places that can prove they're doing a good job. One of the things they do is work the arrest on scene until ROSC. Ironically, many EMS systems then take a 10 minute "time out" in case the patient re-arrests. It also gives them a chance to attach pulse oximetry, get a full set of vital signs, including a temp, a 12-lead ECG, re-assess the airway, and set the VF/VT alarm. Some EMS systems aren't even trying to save the patient because they don't know they can.
 
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