The revised trauma score: a means to evaluate aeromedical staffing patterns.

Area of Science:

• Emergency Medicine
• Trauma Care
• Aeromedical Services

Background:

• Aeromedical services utilize diverse crew configurations for patient transport.
• Objective evaluation of these configurations' impact on patient care is lacking.
• Assessing crew effectiveness is crucial for optimizing aeromedical patient management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To objectively evaluate the impact of different aeromedical crew configurations on patient outcomes.
• To compare patient status before and after transport based on crew composition.
• To establish a methodology for assessing aeromedical crew contribution to trauma patient care.

Main Methods:

• A retrospective review of 96 patients transported by aeromedical services.
• Comparison of two crew configurations: two registered nurse (RN)/paramedics (PM) versus one RN and one paramedic.
• Utilized the Revised Trauma Score for Triage (RTS) as an objective measure of patient status.

Main Results:

• No significant differences were found in ground time, flight time, total mission time, or post-transport RTS between crew configurations.
• Initial RTS was significantly lower for patients cared for by 2 RN/PM crews.
• Analysis of severely injured patients (RTS ≤ 10) showed no significant differences between groups.

Conclusions:

• Crew configuration in aeromedical transport did not demonstrate a significant impact on patient outcomes based on RTS.
• The methodology provides an objective approach to evaluating aeromedical crew effectiveness.
• Further research may explore other patient-centered outcomes to refine crew configuration strategies.