Injury prevention: is there a role for out-of-hospital emergency medical services?

Abstract

Objective: To review the literature for options for integrating injury prevention into the role of out-of-hospital emergency medical services (EMS).

Data sources: Computerized searches of the English-language literature from 1966 through 1994 were conducted using the MEDLINE and National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP) databases. These were supplemented by hand searches of pertinent journals not indexed on MEDLINE or by NAEMSP and the reference lists of retrieved articles. Key words searched included emergency medical services, accident, injury, prevention, and safety.

Article selection: The review included all articles that described the experience of EMS organizations or individuals providing primary injury prevention (PIP) services or that proposed EMS PIP activities.

Synthesis: PIP EMS experiences and PIP activities proposed for EMS included: preventing injuries in EMS providers, serving as role models, identifying persons at risk for injury, providing prevention counseling, collecting injury data, surveying residences and institutions for injury risks and hazards, conducting educational programs and media campaigns, and advocating legislative changes that promote injury prevention. Few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of EMS PIP activities.

Conclusion: As changes in the market compel health care systems to focus more on prevention, EMS organizations and individual providers may be assuming new injury prevention roles. Some EMS systems in many parts of the country have incorporated PIP into their work. It is necessary, however, to determine which PIP roles are effective and how they will be supported.