Medical command errors in an urban advanced life support system

✍ Scribed by C James Holliman; Richard C Wuerz; Steven A Meador

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1992
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 371 KB
• Volume: 21
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1097-6760
• DOI: 10.1016/s0196-0644(05)82648-4

✦ Synopsis

The aim of this study was to assist in focusing educational efforts for command physicians by identifying the most common types of errors made by on-line medical command.

Design: Retrospective survey of prehospital advanced life support (ALS) trip sheets.

Setting: An urban ALS paramedic service with on-line physician medical command rotating on a monthly basis among three hospitals.

Participants: From September 1988 through December 1990, all ALS run sheets were reviewed as part of an ongoing quality assurance program. Cases were identified as deviating from regional emergency medical services protocols as judged by agreement of three physician reviewers. Cases were excluded if all three reviewers did not agree that the command rendered was inappropriate.