Department of Emergency Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA.
Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, Anchorage, AK.
Air Med J. 2020 Sep-Oct;39(5):393-398. doi: 10.1016/j.amj.2020.05.013. Epub 2020 Jun 19.
Little is known about medevac utilization in remote, rural Alaska where there is no road access and communities are reliant on medevacs for emergency care. With high financial costs and risks to flight crews, there is an urgent need to understand medevac utilization in rural Alaska. This article aimed to describe medevac utilization and patient characteristics over 9 years in the remote, air transport dependent in Alaska.
Deidentified data (2010-2018) were obtained for all medevacs originating within the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and chi-square tests of independence were conducted to identify differences.
Four thousand nine hundred ninety-one medevacs were performed, averaging 555 (standard deviation = 67.7) per year. Medevacs for respiratory complaints were predominant for children, whereas trauma predominated for adults 18 to 40 years old. Traumatic injury was more common in males than females aged < 65 years but was more common in females than males aged ≥ 65 years. Significant variability occurred in medevacs based on the community and the hour of the day.
Medevacs are a critical part of health care in rural, remote Alaska but appear subject to clinical and nonclinical determinants. These baseline data provide a foundation for future studies aiming to increase medevac safety and provide decision-making support.
在阿拉斯加偏远农村地区,道路不通,社区依赖医疗后送服务获得紧急护理,因此对医疗后送的利用情况知之甚少。由于飞行机组面临高昂的财务成本和风险,迫切需要了解阿拉斯加农村地区的医疗后送利用情况。本文旨在描述 9 年来在阿拉斯加偏远、依赖空运地区的医疗后送利用情况和患者特征。
获取了育空-科尤库克三角洲内所有起源的医疗后送的匿名数据(2010-2018 年)。计算了描述性统计数据,并进行了独立性卡方检验,以确定差异。
共进行了 4991 次医疗后送,平均每年 555 次(标准差=67.7)。儿童的呼吸系统疾病是医疗后送的主要原因,而 18 至 40 岁成年人的创伤则是主要原因。<65 岁的男性创伤性损伤比女性更常见,但≥65 岁的女性比男性更常见。医疗后送的社区和一天中的时间不同,差异显著。
医疗后送是阿拉斯加偏远农村地区医疗保健的重要组成部分,但似乎受到临床和非临床因素的影响。这些基线数据为未来旨在提高医疗后送安全性和提供决策支持的研究提供了基础。