Medical care at the California AIDS Ride 3: experiences in event medicine

Providing medical care at special events is a growing area of concern of emergency physicians. Little information has been published on events in which participants outnumber spectators. We describe such an event at which the medical encounters far outnumbered any previously published report.

The California AIDS Ride 3 bicycle ride took place June 1-8, 1996, and covered 547 miles of highway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. One hundred five volunteer staff members provided medical care. Extensive patient encounters were recorded on a one-page form; all other encounters were recorded as hash marks by the provider. Two physicians reviewed the medical records and categorized each encounter.

Of the 25,379 patient encounters recorded over the 8 days of the event, 509 were triaged as greater severity (requiring an examination by a physician); 31% of these involved heat-related illnesses. Fifty-five patients required transport to local emergency departments by the local EMS systems; 7 of these patients required hospital admission.

The California AIDS Ride 3 required more medical personnel and resulted in more patient encounters than any similar event previously described. We describe the medical care team and patient encounters to facilitate planning for medical care at future class 3 events.