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A Survey of Advanced Life Support Practices in the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2012

Robert F. Lavery ,
James Doran ,
Bartholomew J. Tortella  and
Ronald P. Cody
Robert F. Lavery
Affiliation:
Division of Trauma and Emergency Medical Services, The New Jersey Trauma Center, University Hospital and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, N.J.
James Doran
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental and Community Medicine, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School—UMDNJ, Piscataway, N.J.
Bartholomew J. Tortella*
Affiliation:
Division of Trauma and Emergency Medical Services, The New Jersey Trauma Center, University Hospital and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, N.J.
Ronald P. Cody
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental and Community Medicine, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School—UMDNJ, Piscataway, N.J.
*
University Hospital Emergency Services, 150 Bergen Street, C-384, Newark, NJ 07103USA
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Abstract

Study Objective:

A national survey was conducted to determine the sponsorship of emergency medical services (EMS) projects, composition of EMS advanced life support (ALS) teams, types of medications and equipment carried, and procedures approved for use by EMS systems in the United States.

Methods:

A mail survey was sent to 211 training supervisors of EMS services across the United States in 1989. The survey requested demographic and service-related information, including types of EMS sponsorship, composition of ALS teams, medications and equipment carried, and procedures which personnel have been trained to use. Medications carried were correlated with advanced cardiac life support (ACLS), the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) recommended drug lists, and with the sponsoring agency.

Results:

One-hundred seventy (70%) survey forms were returned. The major providers of ALS in the United States are fire departments (36%), followed by private providers (26%), hospitals (22%), and local governments (16%). The most common ALS team composition was two paramedics followed by one paramedic and one emergency medical technician (EMT). Most ALS services carry all of the recommended ACLS medications; a much smaller percentage carry all of the drugs recommended by ACEP. Fire department based ALS units carried the least number of medications; hospital-based ALS units carried the highest number of medications. Combined, over 80 different medications were carried by the services responding to the survey.

Conclusion:

The use of ACLS drugs and procedures are well-established nation-wide; less accepted are the medications recommended by ACEP. While over 80 different medications are carried by the EMS systems that responded to this survey, only a small fraction have been investigated in the prehospital setting.

Type
Original Research
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , June 1992 , pp. 144 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 1992

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