NOT ANOTHER LIFT ASSIST! :Are lift assists an early indicator of bigger problems?

摘要

THE RESEARCH: Leggatt L, Van Aarsen K, Columbus M, et al. Morbidity and mortality associated with pre-hospital "Lift-Assist." Prehosp Emerg Care. 2017;21(5):556-562. THE SCIENCE: This paper comes from our esteemed colleagues in London, Ontario, Canada, who explored the outcome of patients that received a lift assist by EMS. They defined lift assist as, "When an individual is assisted up to a more mobile position from the ground by paramedics, but not treated or brought to hospital for further medical attention." During the 2013 calendar year, their service responded to 42,055 EMS calls, of which 804 (1.9%) were lift assists for 414 individual patients. Additionally, 298 (72%) had only one lift assist, and 116 (28%) had more than one lift assist. During the following 14 days, 169 (21%) lift assist patients visited the ED, resulting in 93 (11.6%) of them being admitted and 9 (1.1%) dying within 14 days of their lift assist encounter. Advancing age and failing to obtain a full set of vital signs significantly predicted this short-term morbidity and mortality. They concluded that lift assist calls "may be an early indicator of problems requiring comprehensive medical evaluation and thus further factors associated with poor outcomes should be determined."