Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate, describe, and analyze the Norte Novo regional air medical service provided by the Brazilian Emergency Medical Rescue Service.
Methods: This was a retrospective and descriptive study with a quantitative approach of the incidents registered from November 2016 to December 2019. For general patient classification, descriptive statistics of the following variables were performed: sex, age/age group, type of diagnosis, city where the incident took place, city of destination, length of patient care, ventilatory support, use of sedation, and use of vasoactive drugs. All analyses were performed using the XLSTAT program (Version 19.4; Addinsoft, New York, NY), considering a significance level of 5%.
Results: There were 1,677 responses divided into clinical (60.8%), traumatic (37.8%), organ transport (1.2%), and interhospital transference (0.2%). The most frequent diagnoses were acute myocardial infarction and stroke (clinical care) and polytrauma (trauma care). The average waiting time until the helicopter arrived at the scene was 25 minutes.
Conclusion: This study shows the importance and relevance of this air medical service for the area it covers. Further research is needed to address the profile of this service in our country, which will allow us to elucidate scenarios and develop strategies to assist the population and, thus, design training and simulation exercises for emergency service teams based on local realities.
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