EC Emergency Medicine and Critical Care

Background: In Germany, an emergency patient is entitled to emergency medical assistance that corresponds to the current state of scientific knowledge. Emergency physicians are supposed to perform invasive curative measures in complex situations. Due to the shortage of specialists, staff shortages may occur. This endangers the mission of emergency physicians.

Methodology: In the period from 01.05.2021 to 31.07.2021, emergency physician deployments in the Erfurt rescue service area were evaluated retrospectively. Mission-specific data, invasive and non-invasive as well as pharmacological measures were examined. The data were analysed descriptively with IBM SPSS Statistics Version 25.

Results: A total of N = 1,760 emergency medical interventions were evaluated. A total of 1,373 invasive and non-invasive interventions were performed. The most common procedure was intravenous access with n = 1,051 (76.5%). In addition, 2,163 pharmacological individual measures were performed. The most frequently used medication was the full electrolyte solution, which was applied in n = 457 (21.1%). In more than 50% of the interventions, no measures were performed for which an emergency physician would have been necessary.

Discussion: The emergency paramedic learns invasive and curative measures in his training. This professionalisation of the emergency medical services makes it possible to relieve the emergency doctor. An adaptation of the emergency physician indication catalogue to the current care structures seems necessary. This enables a targeted and resource-oriented use of the emergency doctor.

Keywords: Emergency Doctor; Emergency Paramedic; Pharmacological Measures; Invasive Measures; Rescue Service

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