Operational demands on pre-hospital emergency care for burn injuries in a middle-income setting: a study in the Western Cape, South Africa

被引：8

作者：

Allgaier R.L. ^{[1
,2
]}

Laflamme L. ^{[1
,3
]}

Wallis L.A. ^{[2
]}

机构：

[1] Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm

[2] Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Interdisciplinary Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Tygerberg

[3] University of South Africa, Pretoria

来源：

International Journal of Emergency Medicine | 2017年 / 10卷 / 1期

关键词：

Burns; Healthcare systems; Pre-hospital emergency care;

D O I：

10.1186/s12245-017-0128-9

中图分类号：

学科分类号：

摘要：

Background: Burns occur disproportionately within low-socioeconomic populations. The Western Cape Province of South Africa represents a middle-income setting with a high rate of burns, few specialists and few burn centres, yet a well-developed pre-hospital system. This paper describes the burn cases from a viewpoint of operational factors important to pre-hospital emergency medical services. Methods: A retrospective, cross-sectional study of administrative and patient records was conducted. Data were captured for all pre-hospital burn patients treated by public Emergency Medical Services over a continuous 12-month period. Data were captured separately at each site using a standardised data collection tool. Described categories included location (rural or urban), transport decision (transported or remained on scene), age (child or adult) and urgency (triage colour). Results: EMS treated 1198 patients with confirmed burns representing 0.6% of the total EMS caseload; an additional 819 potential burn cases could not be confirmed. Of the confirmed cases, 625 (52.2%) were located outside the City of Cape Town and 1058 (88.3%) were transported to a medical facility. Patients from urban areas had longer mission times. Children accounted for 37.5% (n = 449) of all burns. The majority of transported patients that were triaged were yellow (n = 238, 41.6% rural and n = 182, 37.4% urban). Conclusions: Burns make up a small portion of the EMS caseload. More burns occurred in areas far from urban hospitals and burn centres. The majority of burn cases met the burn centre referral criteria. © 2017, The Author(s).

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