EMS handover; make a difference to all alerted patients

In Emergency Medicine we pride ourselves on treating the undifferentiated acutely ill patient. The ones that no clinician has seen and it’s up to us to ascertain exactly what’s going on but is that really the case? But EMS professionals (Paramedics and technicians in the UK) provide a service to the truly undifferentiated patient. It is likely that EDs receive major trauma in the most regimented and professional manner when compared to other acute presentations. Trauma carries a sexy image and receives a significant amount of publicity and attention as a result. But think for just a moment about the other alerts you receive, sepsis, respiratory distress, cardiac arrests, do you handover in a such a regimented and pre determined fashion? Is there a tendency to eye roll and downplay what the EMS have taken time and skill to evaluate and formed a working diagnosis over? And if so what gives us the right to make such sweeping assumptions and is it fair to give a different service to those outside of the trauma cohort. This podcast explores some of the literature behind handover and will hopefully give a few ideas into making the handover a positive experience for EMS staff, EM clinicians and most importantly patients and their outcomes