Citation

Budd HR, Almond LM, Porter K. Emerg. Med. J. 2007; 24(4): 302-304.

Affiliation

Department of Accident and Emergency Medicine, University Hospital North Staffordshire, 16 Rosemary Ednam Close, Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent ST4 7NG, UK. traumastudy@hotmail.com

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, BMJ Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1136/emj.2006.038323

PMID

17384393

PMCID

PMC2658246

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Appropriate alerting of patients with trauma and informative handover are necessary to allow a smooth transition of care between the prehospital and hospital teams. AIM: To identify current practice and areas that need to be improved to facilitate the transition from prehospital care to emergency department resuscitation. METHODS: A questionnaire postal study of 100 emergency departments and all 32 ambulance service trusts in England and Wales. RESULTS: Emergency departments returned 34 (34%) completed questionnaires, and ambulance trusts returned 16 (50%) completed questionnaires. In all, 56.8% of emergency department responders stated that trauma alert information was relayed through ambulance control, 48.5% stated that alert messages were standardised and 18.5% felt that ambulance crews used the trauma severity scoring system during alerting. 64.7% stated that handover was broadcast to the trauma team and 9.1% routinely received digital photographic images. All ambulance service responders included injury mechanism in their alerting criteria and 53.3% used a standard handover structure with 86.7% familiar with the mnemonic ASHICE (Age, Sex, History, Injuries, Condition, Expected time of arrival) for rapid information transmission. DISCUSSION: Greater cooperation between regional emergency departments and ambulance services is necessary to refine the alerting and handover process, producing a pathway through which vital information is collected by trained personnel and communicated without distortion to the resuscitation room, where it may be utilised to inform life-saving decisions.

Language: en