A regional review of air medical transports for fatal motor vehicle crashes.
This article presents study results from an assessment of the performance of the air medical (and advanced life support) components of the EMS system in response to fatal motor vehicle crashes. Results are presented for one of Massachusetts' five EMS regions, including the finding that air medical transports are involved in 20% of the fatal crashes for the region and transport 11% of the involved individuals. Although the study focused on air medical utilization, it also identified issues related to the future implementation of motor vehicle automatic crash notification (ACN) and telematics that could relay crash severity data from onboard computers (e.g., event data recorders) to auto manufacturers' help centers or state emergency call centers. This technology will place new demands on state EMS systems. To meet the challenges posed by these technological changes, states will need to assess the type and number of EMS services required to respond to ACN motor vehicle crashes and develop methods to determine what level of service to deploy based on the information relayed from the vehicles. An initial step in this evaluation process is to determine the current use of EMS resources to place planned system changes and demand into context.
Garthe
E A
EA
Garthe Associates, Marblehead, Mass., USA.
Mango
N K
NK
Prenney
B
B
D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000401:mortality*; D017732:Air Ambulances / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003625:Data Collection; D016208:Databases, Factual; D006801:Humans; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D008404:Massachusetts / Q000453:epidemiology; D008498:Medical Record Linkage; D014187:Transportation of Patients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014218:Triage; D014600:Utilization Review