Citation

Allgaier RL, Laflamme L, Wallis LA. Int. J. Emerg. Med. 2017; 10(1): e2.

Affiliation

Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Interdisciplinary Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Tygerberg, South Africa.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1186/s12245-017-0128-9

PMID

28124200

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Burns occur disproportionately within low-socioeconomic populations. The Western Cape Province of South Africa represents a middle-income setting with a high rate of burns, few specialists and few burn centres, yet a well-developed pre-hospital system. This paper describes the burn cases from a viewpoint of operational factors important to pre-hospital emergency medical services.

METHODS: A retrospective, cross-sectional study of administrative and patient records was conducted. Data were captured for all pre-hospital burn patients treated by public Emergency Medical Services over a continuous 12-month period. Data were captured separately at each site using a standardised data collection tool. Described categories included location (rural or urban), transport decision (transported or remained on scene), age (child or adult) and urgency (triage colour).

RESULTS: EMS treated 1198 patients with confirmed burns representing 0.6% of the total EMS caseload; an additional 819 potential burn cases could not be confirmed. Of the confirmed cases, 625 (52.2%) were located outside the City of Cape Town and 1058 (88.3%) were transported to a medical facility. Patients from urban areas had longer mission times. Children accounted for 37.5% (n = 449) of all burns. The majority of transported patients that were triaged were yellow (n = 238, 41.6% rural and n = 182, 37.4% urban).

CONCLUSIONS: Burns make up a small portion of the EMS caseload. More burns occurred in areas far from urban hospitals and burn centres. The majority of burn cases met the burn centre referral criteria.

Language: en

Keywords

Burns; Healthcare systems; Pre-hospital emergency care