Is EMS Triage of Pediatric Trauma Patients Effective?

Triage Questions Lerner EB, Drendel AL, Cushman JT, et al. Ability of the physiologic criteria of the field triage guidelines to identify children who need the resources of a trauma center. Prehosp Emerg Care. Oct. 6, 2016. [Epub ahead of print.] Trauma is the leading cause of death for children over the age of 1 year. Early recognition and appropriate transport to trauma systems improves patient outcomes. Background: E. Brooke Lerner, PhD,  and her team were curious about the validity of the Field Triage Guidelines developed by the American College of Surgeons and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and she and her colleagues set out to investigate their effectiveness. Lerner, the principal investigator of this study, is an EMS provider with a PhD in epidemiology. She’s diligently used scientific methods to improve prehospital care for several decades. With hundreds of scientific EMS studies published in peer-reviewed journals, her accomplishments are a crown jewel in our profession. Lerner’s advocacy of, and inquiry into, systematic improvements in the assessment and care of children is only one of her areas of specialty. Readers may also want to read her paper on the use of lactate to improve trauma triage that was published by the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery in September. Methods: This was an observational study conducted over three years at three regional pediatric trauma centers. The authors used research assistants positioned at each of t...
Source: JEMS Patient Care - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Columns Trauma Source Type: news