Randomized controlled trial of a scoring aid to improve Glasgow Coma Scale scoring by emergency medical services providers.

ABSTRACT:

Study objective

Emergency medical services (EMS) personnel frequently use the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) to assess injured and critically ill patients. This study assesses the accuracy of EMS providers' GCS scoring, as well as the improvement in GCS score assessment with the use of a scoring aid.

Methods

This randomized, controlled study was conducted in the emergency department (ED) of an urban academic trauma center. Emergency medical technicians or paramedics who transported a patient to the ED were randomly assigned one of 9 written scenarios, either with or without a GCS scoring aid. Scenarios were created by consensus of expert attending emergency medicine, EMS, and neurocritical care physicians, with universal consensus agreement on GCS scores. χ(2) And Student's t test

SUBMITTER: Feldman A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4339531 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature