DOCUMENTATION IN PHYSICIAN STAFFED AMBULA NCES - A BASIS FOR RESEARCHAND QUALITY ASSURANCE IN PREHOSPITAL CARE

Documentation of physician-staffed ambulance runs traditionally focuse s on information transfer between the prehospital care provider and th e receiving hospital. To use this information as a tool for research a nd quality assurance programs, the German Interdisciplinary Associatio n of Critical Care Medicine developed in a consensus process a protoco l for nationwide use. Protocol development was based on the question o f what information can be obtained reliably in the emergency medical s ervice (EMS) environment and what questions should be answered by data analysis. The protocol content was evaluated in several pilot studies and focuses on incidents and interventions that occur with reasonable frequency. It was taken into account that due to this approach, not a ll information that can possibly be obtained during the ambulance run can be documented. For data collection, the concepts of manual process ing versus optical scanning are evaluated. The data analysis can serve as a basic tool for screening structure and process quality of EMS sy stems on a local as well as a nationwide level. During this process, a reas for improvement as well as for clinical research are identified.