Duration and type of prehospital emergency therapy

Prehospital on-scene time (OST) has only been recorded sporadically and has not been related to different types of therapy. In order to create a reference standard for a European emergency medical system involving field stabilization (FS) by physicians, a retrospective analysis was performed of 639 consecutive missions over 81 months in relation to the extent of therapy evaluated by the Emergency Therapy Index (ETI). An OST was not registered in ETI-0-2. The median OST in ETI-3 was 14.0 minutes, slightly increasing with mission grade to 19.5 minutes in ETI-6, and then suddenly increasing to 23.5 minutes in cases of intubation (ETI-7) and to 26.0 minutes when cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed with subsequent admission (ETI-8). A variety of prehospital therapy is demonstrated. The study supports the view that only exceptional conditions can justify an OST exceeding 20 minutes in ETI-3-4, 24 minutes in ETI-5-6 and 33 minutes in ETI-7.