Long-term Effectiveness of the Airway Registry at Sydney Helicopter Emergency Medical Service

Prehospital rapid sequence intubation (RSI) is prone to suboptimal documentation. The Greater Sydney Area Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (GSA-HEMS) uses a dedicated Airway Registry (AR) to aid documentation. The AR was only evaluated shortly after its introduction. This first evaluation is followed up to assess the long-term effectiveness of the AR. The secondary objective was to compare the AR with templates in the literature.

A retrospective review of electronic records was undertaken to compare completeness of documentation between an immediate postintroduction and a long-term postintroduction cohort. Differences between the two cohorts were tested for significance.

There was no significant difference in documentation for Cormack-Lehane laryngoscopy grade at the first intubation attempt (P = .552) and confirmation of end-tidal carbon dioxide (P = .258). A significant improvement in the documentation of laryngoscopy grade for the second attempt (P = 0) was found. The documentation of intubator details remained at 100% (165/165). The variables collected by GSA-HEMS corresponded well to the literature, but some definitions differ (eg, desaturation).

There was no significant change in completeness of documentation for most key intubation variables eight years after the introduction of the AR. GSA-HEMS performs well in registering variables as proposed in the literature; however, variable definitions need to be synchronized.