Procedural Experience With Intubation: Results From a National Emergency Medicine Group

Area of Science:

• Emergency Medicine
• Critical Care Procedures
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Intubation is a critical emergency medicine procedure.
• The frequency of intubation opportunities for emergency physicians is not well-established.
• Understanding this frequency is crucial for training and resource allocation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the incidence of intubations performed by emergency physicians.
• To analyze intubation frequency per physician, per clinical hour, and per patient visit.
• To provide data on the procedural volume for emergency physicians in emergency departments.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from a national emergency medicine group (135 EDs, 19 states, 2010-2016).
• Calculated intubation incidence per physician, per 100 clinical hours, and per 1,000 ED visits.
• Reported medians and interquartile ranges for intubation rates in general and pediatric EDs.

Main Results:

• Analyzed 53,904 intubations by 2,108 emergency physicians.
• Median intubation rate: 10 per year (IQR 5-17) for general ED physicians.
• Median rates: 0.7 per 100 clinical hours and 2.7 per 1,000 ED visits.

Conclusions:

• Intubation frequency varies considerably among emergency physicians.
• A notable percentage of physicians perform few intubations annually.
• Findings offer essential insights into the procedural volume of emergency physicians.