Emergency Medical Care - Case Study Example

? Emergency medical care Lecturer Introduction Emergency medical service is a type of emergency care that is dedicated to offering out of hospital acute medical care, transporting patients to definitive care, and other patient medical transport with injuries and illness which helps patients not to transport themselves. Emergency medical care may also be referred to as first aid squad, ambulance, emergency squad, life squad, rescue squad, ambulance corps, or ambulance service. The primary goal of emergency medical services is to either arrange for timely removal and transport of the patient to a point of definitive care, or provide treatment to patients in need of urgent medical care in order to treat satisfactorily the presenting conditions. Traditionally, emergency medical service reflected a change from a simple ambulance system that provides patient transportation only, to an ambulance system where actual medical care is provided both at the scene and during transport. Emergency medical service is summoned by the public in most places in the world through emergency telephone numbers (Melby, 2005). This paper seeks to discuss ambulance services, emergency medical services. In most governments, emergency medical services are regulated and limited to defined organizations that can offer the services. Even though many governments set a level of qualifications for those working on an ambulance, some governments allow a broad difference between different kinds of operators. Some of the operators, emergency medical service providers include: Government Ambulance Service, this operates independently from police and fire service of a region, they are funded by national, local or provincial governments. These are only found in big cities in most countries. In the United States, the services provided by ambulance are referred to as third service EMS; Police or Fire Linked Service; ambulances can be operated by local police or fire service in countries such as Japan, India, United States, and France. This is common particularly in the rural areas, where ambulance maintenance is not cost effective necessarily (Nallamothu & Bates, 2003). This mostly involves fire track or injury or illness attended by vehicles instead of an ambulance; Volunteer Ambulance Service, this includes non profit or charity companies that operate ambulances for both patient transport and emergency function. They are often linked to volunteers providing ambulatory services in a voluntary fire service. For example the Red Cross, St John Ambulance and Order of Malta Ambulance Corps; Private Ambulance Service, this includes normal commercial companies with employees that are paid but usually on national government or local contracts. Such companies may only offer transport of patients as elements of ambulance care, though they can be contracted to provide emergency medical care and respond to emergencies; Combined Emergency Service, include full emergency service agencies, mostly found in airports or large universities and colleges. A key feature is that all their personnel are trained in both ambulance and firefighter; Hospital Based Service, are provided by hospitals to the community. They majorly offer Advance Life Support services; Charity Ambulance, this is a special type provided for reasons of taking sick adults and children on vacations or trips away from care homes, hospitals or hospices where they get long term care. For example the Jumbulance project in UK; and Company Ambulance, provided by big companies such as oil refineries, distilleries, chemical plant and breweries (Nallamothu & Bates, 2003). The purpose of emergency medical service is to accomplish the basic first aid principles, which include: to preserve life, to promote recovery, and to prevent further injury. This is the common theme in medicine which is illustrated by the star of life, where each arm of the star represents one of the six points representing stages of pre hospital high quality care. These stages include: early detection, where members of another agency or public understands the prevailing incident; early reporting, where the first person on the scene alerts the emergency medical service providers; early response, where the first EMS professional rescuers arrive on the scene quickly to enable the beginning of care; good on scene care, where emergency medical service offers timely and appropriate interventions in order to treat the patients at the incident’s scene; care in transit, where the emergency medical service load the patient to suit transport and continue providing appropriate medical care; and transfer to definitive care, where the emergency medical service hands the patient over to an appropriate care setting such as hospital emergency department for further care of physicians (Dick, 2003). Emergency medical service has a broad level of care. EMS is provided by a variety of individuals using various methods. These methods are at times determined by locale or country, with each country determining the approach of providing EMS. Advance Life Support in most countries is performed by paramedics. However, in countries such as South Africa and UK, this role is offered by paramedics specially trained and independent in their own right. Beyond the model of national care, the type of EMS is determined by medical authorities and local jurisdictions, based on the community needs and economic resources. Generally, the level of emergency medical service falls in three categories; Advanced Life Support, Basic Life Support, and care by physicians and or nurses who work in a pre hospital setting or on ambulance. A fourth level, in some jurisdiction, Intermediate Life Support may be present, though they rarely function independently (US Department of Transportation, 1995). Practitioners providing emergency medical service have defined job titles including; Ambulance Technician, Emergency Medical Technician, or Paramedic. These are ambulance care givers generally paraprofessionals or professionals whose use is controlled via registration and training. Conclusion In summary, Emergency medical service is an emergency care dedicated to offer out of hospital acute medical care, transporting patients to definitive care, and other patient medical transport with injuries and illness which helps patients not to transport themselves. An emergency medical service saves life. The service providers aim to: preserve life, promote recovery, and prevent further injury. This paper has provided a discussion of emergency medical services, and illustrated the service providers, level of care and functions of EMS. References Dick WF (2003). Anglo-American vs. Franco-German emergency medical services system. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine 18 (1): 29–35; discussion 35–7. Nallamothu BK, Bates ER (2003). Percutaneous coronary intervention versus fibrinolytic therapy in acute myocardial infarction: is timing (almost) everything. The American Journal of Cardiology 92 (7): 824–6. Melby V, Ryan A (2005). Caring for older people in pre-hospital emergency care: can nurses make a difference? Journal of Clinical Nursing 14 (9): 1141–50 US Department of Transportation, (1995). Planning Emergency Medical Communications: Volume 2, Local/Regional Level Planning Guide, (Washington, D.C.: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, US Department of Transportation. Read More