EMS Emergencies Flashcards
Emergency medical services (EMS)
A multidisciplinary system that represents the combined efforts of several professionals and agencies to provide prehospital emergency care to the sick and injured
National EMS Scope of Practice Model
A document created by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that outlines the skills performed by various EMS providers
Certification
A process in which a person, an institution, or a program is evaluated and recognized as meeting certain predetermined standards to provide safe and ethical care.
Licensure
The process whereby a competent authority, usually the state, allows people to perform a regulated act.
Credentialing
An established process to determine the qualifications necessary to be allowed to practice a particular profession, or to functions as an organization
Emergency Medical Responder (EMR)
Organized rescuer such a s law enforcement officers or firefighters who often arrive at the scene before the ambulance and EMTs.
Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)
An EMT has the essential knowledge and skills required to provide basic emergency care in the field. They are responsible for the assessment and care of patients and follow the proper packaging and transport of the patient to the ED if appropriate
Advance Emergency Medical Technician (AEMT)
additional preparation beyond the EMT level that includes training and education in specific aspect of ALS: IV Therapy, advanced airway management, and the administration of certain emergency drugs.
Paramedic
preparation focuses on:
- ALS assessment
- Diagnostic and treatment tools and techniques, suchas interpretation of heart rhythms
- advnaced airway management
- emergency pharmacology
Americans with disabilities Act (ADA)
Comprehensive legislation that is designed to protect people with disabilities against discrimination
Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs)
A device that detects treatable life-threatening cardiac dysrhythmias (ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia) and delivers the appropriate electrical shock to the patient.
Public safety access point
communication center where trained dispatchers obtain the necessary information from the caller and dispatch the ambulance crew and other equipment and responders that may be needed
Emergency medical dispatch ( EMD)
assists dispatchers in providing callers with instructions to help them deal with a medical emergency until EMS crews arrive
Medical Director
The physician who authorizes or delegates to the EMT the authority to provide medical care in the field
Medical Control
Physician instructions given directly by radio or cell phone (online/direct) or indirectly by protocol/guidelines (off-line/indirect), as authorized by the medical director of the service program.
Primary Service Area (PSA)
The designated area in which the EMS agency is responsible for the provision of prehospital emergency care and transportation to the hospital.
Mobile integrated health care (MIH)
a model in which health care is provided within the community, rather than at a physician’s office or hospital.
Community paramedicine
experienced paramedics receive advanced education and training to equip them to provide a variety of services within a community.
Quality control
Oversight by the medical director to ensure the appropriate medical care standards are met by EMTs on each call.
Continuous quality improvement (CQI)
A system of internal and external reviews and audits of all aspects of an EMS system aimed at improving outcomes.
Public Health
addresses the health needs of entire populations, with the goal of preventing health problems
Primary Prevention
Efforts to prevent an injury or illness from ever occurring.
Secondary Prevention
Efforts to limit the effects of an injury or illness that you cannot completely prevent.
Evidence- based medicine (EBM)
focuses patient care on procedures that have proved useful in improving outcomes.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)E
Federal legislation passed in 1996. Its main effect in EMS is in limiting availability of patients’ health care information and penalizing violations of patient privacy.
