Table 2 Mean and standard deviation importance rankings and free text responses for the fourteen research questions in Round 3, ordered by highest to lowest mean ranking
From: Consensus on research priorities for Essex & Herts Air Ambulance: a Delphi study
Category | Question | Mean ranking | SD ranking | Free text responses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Neurological Emergencies | How does a pre-hospital doctor-paramedic team affect the outcome of patients with severe head injuries? | 5.00 | 3.28 | |
Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest | Does post-ROSC intubation and transfer to a PPCI suite generate better neurological outcomes and long-term survival than those who arrive in a local Emergency Department with a supraglottic airway? | 5.50 | 3.68 | Key question to answer. |
Neurological Emergencies | For patients with TBI, does pre-hospital anaesthesia and transfer direct to a neurosurgical facility lead to better outcomes than patients with TBI who are intubated in a trauma unit? | 5.67 | 4.66 | Well established research and evidence that TBIs do poorly in non-specialist centres. |
Neurological Emergencies | How accurate are our diagnoses of head injuries? Are patients triaged appropriately to Neurological centres? | 6.25 | 3.47 | |
MassiveHaemorrhage & Trauma | Does intubation of profoundly hypovolaemic (Code Red) patients in the pre-hospital setting improve outcome? | 6.25 | 4.27 | Already been done. |
Massive Haemorrhage & Trauma | How accurate is diagnosis of traumatic injuries by EHAAT medical team? A review of working diagnosis of traumatic injuries versus hospital and post mortem records | 6.50 | 4.34 | This is audit. |
Massive Haemorrhage & Trauma | Does the use of predictive tools and alternative RSI drug regimes reduce the incidence of post RSI hypotension in EHAAT trauma patients? | 6.67 | 3.87 | |
Massive Haemorrhage & Trauma | In awake trauma patients, do HEMS teams do enough to manage pain and temperature throughout the pre-hospital treatment? | 6.83 | 3.56 | Owe a duty of care to patients to be able to answer this question. |
Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest | What is the threshold for sending a HEMS team to an OHCA? | 7.00 | 3.72 | Key question – where do we provide benefit? |
Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest | What is the optimum profile of induction medication for RSI in different patients in ROSC after cardiac arrest? | 7.50 | 3.00 | Optimum dose plus safest dose. Needs to be simple. Not all doctors are the same; not all patients are the same. |
Miscellaneous | Of the calls pre-alerted into hospital by East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST)alone, is there anything the original call details have in common that could have alerted the Critical Care Desk to dispatch HEMS? | 7.83 | 4.00 | |
Massive Haemorrhage & Trauma | Do trauma patients attended by EHAAT who are transferred to a major trauma centre have improved quality of life compared to similar patients not transferred to a major trauma centre, i.e. transferred to a trauma unit according to the triage tool? | 7.92 | 4.54 | Too complicated. The research will yield nothing. |
Massive Haemorrhage & Trauma | How can patients with non-compressible haemorrhage be identified during the emergency call? | 8.83 | 3.64 | |
Massive Haemorrhage & Trauma | How sensitive is the ambulance service’s call taking software at identifying a major trauma patient as per the East of England Trauma Network trauma triage tool? | 9.75 | 3.60 | Greater sensitivity required for both tasking software and trauma triage tool. |