Effect of case identification changes on pre-hospital intubation performance indicators in an Australian helicopter emergency medical service.

OBJECTIVE

A 45-min interval from injury to intubation has been proposed as a performance indicator for severe trauma patient management. In the Sydney pre-hospital system a previous change in case identification systems was associated with activation delay. We aimed to determine if this also decreased the proportion of patients intubated within this benchmark.

METHODS

Retrospective cohort study of patients intubated by a helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) over two time periods. Period 1 dispatch was via HEMS crew directly screening the computerised dispatch system, and period 2 was via paramedics in a central control room. Times from emergency call to intubation were compared.

RESULTS

In the HEMS crew screening period 46/58 (79.31%) intubations met the target, compared with 137/314 (43.6%) in the central control period (P < 0.001). The median (interquartile range) time to intubation in the direct crew screening period was 33 (25-41) min, versus the central control period at 47 (38-60) min (P < 0.001). On multivariate modelling, distance to the scene was related to time to intubation (P < 0.001; Incident Rate Ratio = 1.018, 95% confidence interval 1.015-1.020) as was dispatch system, entrapment/access difficulty and indication for intubation (all P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Time from emergency call to intubation was significantly shorter in the HEMS screening period where all non-trapped cases less than 50 km distant were intubated within the 45-min benchmark. There was no distance where intubation within 45 min could be assured for non-trapped patients in the central control period due to dispatch delays.