Prehospital Labs: Why You Should Care

Point of care labs are making an appearance in the prehospital environment. The background on how to manage lab values is not widely provided in most EMS training. Point of care testing machines provide a wide range of labs and deciphering what is important and what can be managed in the prehospital environment is confusing, This talk will cover what are the most impactful labs available and what are the nice to know labs. Answering the question, "What am I going to do with it anyway?" will be answered. This talk will also debunk the notions, "The hospital isn't going to listen" and "The hospital is just going to draw their own labs anyway". Paramedics shouldn't be afraid to add this to their overall assessment. It can only help to make the assessment more complete.