Question 1 · Law, Ethics & Human Factors · Easy
A commissioner asks why a regional trauma network funds a physician-led enhanced care team when a paramedic-staffed ambulance service already covers the area. Which answer best reflects the rationale given in the ABC of Prehospital Emergency Medicine?
- ARegionalised services mean longer transfers that the sickest tolerate worst; the team augments the ambulance response
- BThe team replaces the ambulance response for high-acuity patients, releasing crews for lower-acuity work
- CThe team exists chiefly to supervise and revalidate paramedics, with its scene work a secondary benefit
- DNational standards require a doctor at every major trauma patient, so the team is needed for accreditation
- EPhysician-led teams can bypass ambulance dispatch and self-task to incidents, cutting response times
Show answer
Answer: A
Regionalised services mean longer transfers that the sickest tolerate worst; the team augments the ambulance response
The ABC explains that pre-hospital emergency medicine grew out of the regionalisation of specialist medical and trauma services. The patients who benefit most from those systems, the critically injured and unwell, are paradoxically those less likely to tolerate extended transfer without advanced critical care support. That creates a need for practitioners who can give advanced assessment and critical care at the scene and safe critical care retrieval — in most systems, specially trained physician-led teams. Their role is to augment the existing pre-hospital response, not replace it, adding support for higher-acuity patients on scene and during transfer; they are also well placed to educate the providers they work alongside, but education is a by-product rather than the purpose. The ABC describes no national requirement for a doctor at every major trauma patient, and nothing about bypassing dispatch.
Where this comes from
- ABC of Prehospital Emergency Medicine
- Ch. 1 Prehospital Emergency Medicine · Prehospital emergency medicine: regionalisation · p. 1“the regionalization of specialist medical and trauma services”
- Ch. 1 Prehospital Emergency Medicine · Prehospital emergency medicine: who benefits · p. 1“those less likely to tolerate extended transfer without advanced critical care support”
- Ch. 1 Prehospital Emergency Medicine · Prehospital emergency medicine: the role of the team · p. 1“existing prehospital response, not replace it”
- Ch. 1 Prehospital Emergency Medicine · Prehospital emergency medicine: education · p. 1“well placed to educate and enhance the skills”