Ep5: Prenotification as a Clinical Intervention

Hospital pre-notification can directly influence how quickly patients receive time-sensitive care. In this episode of the EMS Clinical Brief, host Maia Dorsett is joined by Tyler LeMay and Jennifer McLymond to explore pre-notification as a clinical intervention, focusing on patients whose next critical treatment requires resources beyond the ambulance—including those with suspected occlusion myocardial infarction, stroke, and major trauma. Through practical examples, they discuss when notification should take priority over other prehospital tasks, how early notification enables parallel processing at the receiving hospital, and how to communicate essential information using a concise, structured framework.References:Nam J, Caners K, Bowen JM, Welsford M, O'Reilly D. Systematic review and meta-analysis of the benefits of out-of-hospital 12-lead ECG and advance notification in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction patients. Annals of Emergency Medicine. 2014;64(2):176-186.Shavadia JS, Roe MT, Chen AY, Lucas J, Fanaroff AC, Kochar A, et al. Association between cardiac catheterization laboratory pre-activation and reperfusion timing metrics and outcomes in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention: A report from the ACTION Registry. JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions. 2018;11(18):1837-1847.Nielsen VM, Song G, DeJoie-Stanton C, Zachrison KS. Emergency medical services prenotification is associated with reduced odds of in-hospital mortality in stroke patients. Prehospital Emergency Care. 2023;27(5):639-645.Durr K, Ho M, Lebreton M, Goltz D, Nemnom MJ, Perry J. Evaluating the impact of pre-hospital trauma team activation criteria. Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine. 2023;25(12):976-983.Deeb AP, Guyette FX, Daley BJ, Miller RS, Harbrecht BG, Claridge JA, et al. Time to early resuscitative intervention association with mortality in trauma patients at risk for hemorrhage. Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery. 2023;94(4):504-512.Ahmed OZ, Yang S, Farneth RA, Sarcevic A, Marsic I, Burd RS. Association between prearrival notification time and Advanced Trauma Life Support protocol adherence. Journal of Surgical Research. 2019;242:231-238.