What Am I Seeing Here? Ultrasound Deployment in the Prehospital Setting

It has been shown in previous studies that it is possible for paramedics to be trained in the use of ultrasound in the prehospital setting. There are variable applications for ultrasound in the prehospital setting, which include abdominal FAST examination as well as cardiac evaluation in cardiac arrest. It is not clear from literature what is the most useful application for patients, nor the best deployment strategy for prehospital providers. We aim to describe our experience in ultrasound deployment, describe our education process and guideline development, our quality review process, and the variable strategies our paramedic services have utilized in its rollout.

Our medical direction team serves multiple EMS services in the St. Paul, Minnesota and surrounding communities. We have relatively short transport times to a range of hospitals from critical access hospitals to tertiary care centers. In the past year we have successfully deployed the use of ultrasound for cardiac arrest as well as trauma with cardiac and lung ultrasounds. We have a variety of services who have uniquely incorporated its use into their operations and we seek to describe our experience from inception to active clinical care.