Safety of a prehospital emergency medical services protocol for an alternative destination for pediatric behavioral emergencies in Alameda County.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Pediatric patients with behavioral health emergencies (BHEs) are often transported to an emergency department (ED) by emergency medical services (EMS), despite having no physical medical complaints, to await psychiatric evaluation and treatment. This process leads to significant delays in their care. We examined the safety of directly transporting pediatric patients with BHEs from the field to an alternative destination of a psychiatric emergency service (PES) facility using an EMS protocol.

Methods

A retrospective review from November 1, 2011, to November 1, 2016, was conducted for pediatric EMS encounters using EMS data from Alameda County, California. Our primary outcome was the safety of a prehospital alternative destination protocol. We identified the proport

SUBMITTER: Glomb NW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10083547 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature