Medical Protocols

Abstract

Several years ago, the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS) Board of Directors established a medical protocol committee composed of the physicians on the board representing the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Association of Critical Care Transport, the American College of Emergency Physicians, the Air Medical Physician Association, and the National Association of EMS Physicians to review select medical protocols (clinical guidelines) submitted by medical transport systems applying for accreditation. Over the past 20 years, the board of directors has reviewed about 4,000 applications for accreditation that includes a review of the medical protocols. The board's intent with every review is to help programs improve the quality of patient care and safety of their service. The medical protocol committee was formed because during these reviews there were weaknesses identified regarding medical protocols; there were no protocols for certain patient diagnoses that would be transported based on the program's scope of care, and some protocols were not congruent with current medical practice. The committee recognizes physician preferences but provides feedback specific to the protocols reviewed that may indicate deviation from current generally accepted clinical practice and evidence-based medicine (when available). See the study by Evans et al 1 Evans IV Phillips GS Alpern ER et al. Association between the New York sepsis care mandate and in-hospital mortality for pediatric sepsis. JAMA. 2018; 320: 358-367 Crossref PubMed Scopus (77) Google Scholar for pediatric sepsis. 1 Evans IV Phillips GS Alpern ER et al. Association between the New York sepsis care mandate and in-hospital mortality for pediatric sepsis. JAMA. 2018; 320: 358-367 Crossref PubMed Scopus (77) Google Scholar Eileen Frazer, RN, CMTE, is the CAMTS executive director. She can be reached at [email protected] and (864) 287-4177.