Arkansas Children’s Hospital is currently conducting a community improvement project regarding heat illness. Drs. Brian Hardin, Matt Neal, Sheva Chervinskiy, and I are surveying Coaches, hospitals, and EMS services to better understand how to standardize treatment for this fatal illness.
I’d like to ask your help. I am in need of a few questions to be answered by EMS services around the state. The answers will then be compiled and evaluated for areas in need of improvements. The results will also help guide where out efforts need to be most concentrated. All EMS, hospitals, and coaches’ responses participating will remain anonymous. More than one person may answer these questions per EMS service/company. The more responses the better.
The questions are as follows:
1. Regarding Heat Illness, Heat stroke, heat exhaustion, heat cramps what is the initial protocol used for your particular EMS service?
2. How successful do you (or the consensus of your company) feel this protocol works for patient stabilization and why?
3. Do you know any statistics regarding the success of these techniques for your particular company? For example, 80 % stabilized and have a good outcome or 5 % mortality in route etc.
4. What part of the protocol or process do you feel needs improvement and why?
5. What part of the protocol do you feel works the best and why?
6. What is the initial time goal for cooling the patient? For example, from being on the scene to cooling?
7. How often are vitals taken and how is temperature taken (oral, axillary, rectal )?
8. How smooth is the transition of care between EMS, and ED facilities and why?
9. What percentage of your patients are pediatric? ( ages 0 – 21 yrs)
Thank you so much for your help serving the children of Arkansas, please email responses to JEPetitto@uams.edu
Thanks again,
Jennifer Petitto, M. D. PGY 2
A publication of the Arkansas EMT Association
