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SHR Neuro Cancer Cardio Lipid Metab Microb
Prause, G; Wildner, G; Gemes, G; Zoidl, P; Zajic, P; Kainz, J; Pock, M; Trimmel, H.
Tiered prehospital emergency care-the Graz model
NOTFALL RETTUNGSMED. 2017; 20(6): 501-508.
Doi: 10.1007/s10049-017-0276-8
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- Leading authors Med Uni Graz
- Prause Gerhard
- Co-authors Med Uni Graz
- Gemes Geza
- Kainz Johann
- Wildner Gernot
- Zajic Paul
- Zoidl Philipp
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- Abstract:
- In Austria, prehospital emergency medical service is provided in two tiers. If there are no obvious disturbances of the patient's vital functions, a standard ambulance staffed with predominant voluntary emergency technicians (= EMT, 260 h of training) will respond to the call. In case the emergency situation exceeds the EMT's level of competence, an emergency physician as next and utmost level of care is summoned to the scene. In Graz, a different model is used consisting of three levels of emergency care. Between basic ambulances and emergency physicians, there is an intermediate step of specialized ambulance staff: medical students as highly qualified emergency technicians, who have completed extended training in emergency medicine of more than 2500 h. Method. Demographical data were gathered from the governmental statistical registry and were related to the frequency of emergency calls obtained from the dispatch centers. Specific data about emergency on-scene procedures were evaluated from the emergency systems of Wiener Neustadt as an example of a two-level system and from the emergency system in Graz being representative for the three-level model. Results. The frequency of emergency physician assignments varies across the federal states of Austria from 14.9 up to 29.7 calls per 1000 inhabitants and year. Specialized measures of emergency medical care like intubation, anesthesia induction, application of catecholamines, and/or antiarrhythmics were comparable in Graz and Wiener Neustadt. Basic emergency medical techniques and especially false alarms or cancellations were significantly less frequent in Graz. Conclusions. The three-tier emergency system of Graz enables a judicious and efficient use of emergency care resources, which allows the provision of adequate care for every emergency patient without excessively straining the emergency care system.
- Find related publications in this database (Keywords)
- Emergency medical services
- Quality control
- Emergency medical technicians
- Education, medical
- Paramedics
- Resue paramedics