Depending on the emergency and treatment circumstance, it can often be helpful to have patients’ family members present to answer questions about a patient’s background or medical history, but it can also be overwhelming and add even more stress for the providers and patients involved.

Suctioning a trach tube can help keep tracheostomy patients healthy, clear the airway, and reduce the risk of serious infections. Many trach patients are able to suction their own tubes at home. Some need the assistance of medical providers, especially when they are hospitalized, suffering respiratory distress, or have other comorbidities. Here’s what you need to know about trach tube suction. 

Good sleep is essential for maintaining brain performance, mood and overall mental and physical health, yet 50 to 70 million people in the U.S. have ongoing sleep disorders which are influenced by age, lifestyle, preexisting health conditions and various other factors.

As a healthcare provider, you know that caring for patients following an accident or illness is a major responsibility. While your treatment regime will depend on their diagnosis, a major focus of your care must be directed toward protecting your patients from acquiring healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) during their stay. And some of the most vulnerable patients are those dependent upon ventilators.

Oral suctioning in a controlled environment is a luxury that just doesn’t happen very often for first responders. For patients with an airway emergency requiring intubation, you rely on equipment that is efficient, rugged, and safe in order to quickly and safely intubate and secure your patients’ airways. Effective suctioning makes a difference – perhaps even a life-saving difference – in a resuscitated patient.

Individuals with special needs make up an increasing proportion of outpatient populations. Better equipment, more effective medications, and the rising cost of medical facilities mean more special needs individuals are being cared for at home by family, friends, and home health personnel.

This means you, as an EMS professional, will run into such patients with greater regularity.

The patient has been entrapped for almost thirty minutes. An unrestrained driver going 50 mph who lost control and struck a tree, he is now unresponsive, bleeding profusely, and has the outline of a steering wheel tattooed across his chest.

His face was crushed on impact. You’ve managed to insert an OPA, and you are suctioning his airway and providing ventilations, but his condition is deteriorating with each passing minute. At last, his legs are free, and the patient is packaged. The next critical juncture in patient care arrives: How and where will the patient be transported?

Airway protection can be life-saving for people who are experiencing the effects of both acute and chronic respiratory illness. But airway protection is not an antidote to respiratory failure, and will not necessarily prevent it. Indeed, some doctors even argue that the need for airway protection is a sign of respiratory failure because the patient cannot effectively exchange gases on their own. Prompt intervention in a respiratory emergency may prevent respiratory failure in some cases, although there are no guarantees.  

As we have witnessed through recent natural disasters, hospitals are not immune to power loss. Even a brief disruption in power can affect many critical systems within the hospital. Medical vacuum is one example.

Most hospitals rely on a central source for their vacuum. Generally, a pump, or pumps, in the basement creates the vacuum that is delivered throughout the hospital through a series of pipes. Without electricity, the pump cannot function, and the vacuum is lost. Let’s review how this impacts normal hospital function and ways to mitigate this issue.

March was National Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month (D.D.A.M.), an opportunity to raise awareness about the inclusion of people with developmental disabilities and address the barriers they face in daily life. Around 15% of the world’s population live with a disability, a number that’s increasing annually due to demographic changes including population aging and a global increase in chronic health conditions.

Like with other minority patient populations, it’s critical that first responders understand the unique considerations for treating and performing airway management on patients with developmental disabilities, to provide the most safe and effective level of care possible and continue enhancing healthcare accessibility and services for these patients.