| Title |
HEMS inter-facility transfer: a case-mix analysis
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
BMC Emergency Medicine, May 2018
|
| DOI | 10.1186/s12873-018-0163-8 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Damien Di Rocco, Mathieu Pasquier, Eric Albrecht, Pierre-Nicolas Carron, Fabrice Dami |
| Abstract |
Helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) are popular rescue systems despite inconsistent evidence in the scientific literature to support their use for primary interventions, as well as for inter-facility transfer (IFT). There is little research about IFT by HEMS, hence questions remain about the appropriateness of this method of transport. The aim of this study was to describe a case-mix of operational and medical characteristics for IFT activity of a sole HEMS base, and identify indicators of over-triage. This is a retrospective study on HEMS IFT over 36 months, from January 1st 2013 to December 31st 2015. Medical and operational data from the database of the Emergency Department of Lausanne University Hospital, which provides the emergency physicians for this helicopter base, were reviewed. It included distance and time of flight transport, type of care during flight, and estimated distance of transport if conducted by ground. There were 2194 HEMS missions including 979 IFT (44.6%). Most transfers involved adults (> 17 years old; 799 patients, 81.6%). Forty patients (4.1%) were classified as having benefitted from resuscitation or life-saving measures performed in flight, 615 (62.8%) from emergency treatment and 324 (33.1%) from simple clinical examination. The median distance by air between hospitals was 35.4 km. The estimated median distance by road was 47.7 km. The median duration time from origin to destination by air was 12 min. This case-mix of IFTs by HEMS presents a high severity. There are many signs in favour of over-triage. We propose indicators to help choosing whether HEMS is the most appropriate mean of transport to perform the transfer regarding patient condition, geography, and medical competences available aboard ground ambulances; this may reduce over-triage. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 4 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Switzerland | 1 | 25% |
| Australia | 1 | 25% |
| Unknown | 2 | 50% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 4 | 100% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 44 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 44 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Researcher | 5 | 11% |
| Other | 4 | 9% |
| Professor > Associate Professor | 3 | 7% |
| Student > Master | 3 | 7% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 2 | 5% |
| Other | 8 | 18% |
| Unknown | 19 | 43% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine and Dentistry | 15 | 34% |
| Nursing and Health Professions | 4 | 9% |
| Psychology | 1 | 2% |
| Materials Science | 1 | 2% |
| Design | 1 | 2% |
| Other | 0 | 0% |
| Unknown | 22 | 50% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 11. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 23 December 2023.
All research outputs
#3,335,047
of 25,055,009 outputs
Outputs from BMC Emergency Medicine
#146
of 853 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#64,384
of 333,944 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Emergency Medicine
#2
of 8 outputs
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So far Altmetric has tracked 853 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.2. This one has done well, scoring higher than 83% of its peers.
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