Addressing Prehospital Patient Safety Using the Science of Injury Prevention andControl

Abstract

There is inadequate information about the scope andcharacter of adverse events in prehospital care. However, there is ample evidence to suggest that prehospital patient safety hazards are often unique andunderrecognized. We first summarize what is currently understood about prehospital patient safety andidentify the specific aspects of emergency medical services (EMS) care that may make conventional approaches to the evaluation andimprovement of patient safety more difficult. Next we introduce the concept of using injury prevention andcontrol science to analyze prehospital adverse events andto help develop EMS patient safety solutions. Injury prevention andcontrol is a proven public health approach for the study andreduction of both intentional andunintentional injuries. It includes the use of a Haddon phase–factor matrix to identify possible interventions, especially environmental modifications that provide automatic protection. We demonstrate how this method can be used as a complementary approach in efforts to prevent injuries caused by prehospital adverse medical events.