How Would Prehospital Providers Improve Communication with the ED Team?

Focus groups with emergency medical services providers reveal four potential areas for improvement.

Pass-off from an emergency medical services (EMS) provider to the emergency department (ED) team is an important moment where key information can be either preserved or lost. Investigators used qualitative research methods to determine EMS provider's opinions about how to improve communication.

The researchers conducted focus groups with a total of 48 EMS providers at three conferences. The participants identified four key points for improving the pass-off process: “communicate directly with the ED provider responsible for the patient's care; increase interdisciplinary feedback, transparency, and shared understanding of scope of practice between out-of-hospital and hospital-based providers; standardize some aspects of the handoff; and harnes…

Reviewing Author

Daniel J. Pallin, MD, MPH

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardPortola Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Speaker’s BureauPeerView Institute for Medical Education

Grant/Research SupportAgency for Healthcare Research and Quality; CDC; NIH–National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences; NIH–National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID); NIH–NIAID–Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group; Merck; Pfizer; Boehringer-Ingelheim; Shire; Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Novartis; bioMérieux; Siemens; Rapid Pathogen Screening; Magnolia; Stago; Innovative Biosensors; Molecular Detection, Inc.; Dyax Corp.; Trius Pharmaceuticals

Daniel J. Pallin, MD, MPH

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardPortola Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Speaker’s BureauPeerView Institute for Medical Education

How Would Prehospital Providers Improve Communication with the ED Team?

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Reviewing Author