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Operational demands on pre-hospital emergency care for burn injuries in a middle-income setting : a study in the Western Cape, South Africa

Allgaier, Rachel L. ; Laflamme, Lucie ; Wallis, Lee A. (2017-01)

CITATION: Allgaier, R. L., Laflamme, L. & Wallis, L. A. 2017. Operational demands on pre-hospital emergency care for burn injuries in a middle-income setting: a study in the Western Cape, South Africa. International Journal of Emergency Medicine, 10(2):1-7, doi:10.1186/s12245-017-0128-9.

The original publication is available at http://intjem.springeropen.com

Publication of this article was funded by the Stellenbosch University Open Access Fund.

Article

ENGLISH SUMMARY : Background: Burns occur disproportionately within low-socioeconomic populations. The Western Cape Province of South Africa represents a middle-income setting with a high rate of burns, few specialists and few burn centres, yet a well-developed pre-hospital system. This paper describes the burn cases from a viewpoint of operational factors important to pre-hospital emergency medical services. Methods: A retrospective, cross-sectional study of administrative and patient records was conducted. Data were captured for all pre-hospital burn patients treated by public Emergency Medical Services over a continuous 12-month period. Data were captured separately at each site using a standardised data collection tool. Described categories included location (rural or urban), transport decision (transported or remained on scene), age (child or adult) and urgency (triage colour). Results: EMS treated 1198 patients with confirmed burns representing 0.6% of the total EMS caseload; an additional 819 potential burn cases could not be confirmed. Of the confirmed cases, 625 (52.2%) were located outside the City of Cape Town and 1058 (88.3%) were transported to a medical facility. Patients from urban areas had longer mission times. Children accounted for 37.5% (n = 449) of all burns. The majority of transported patients that were triaged were yellow (n = 238, 41.6% rural and n = 182, 37.4% urban). Conclusions: Burns make up a small portion of the EMS caseload. More burns occurred in areas far from urban hospitals and burn centres. The majority of burn cases met the burn centre referral criteria.

Please refer to this item in SUNScholar by using the following persistent URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/100681
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