Terms Related to Emergency Medical and Surgical Service The following are some terms that are related to emergency medical and surgical service:
Advance directive: An advance directive is a legal document that outlines a person’s health wishes or appoints someone to handle any medical decisions. This document is used when someone is incapable of making important decisions due to illness or injury.
Air ambulance: An air ambulance, like a normal ambulance, is intended to carry individuals who require medical care. Air ambulances are usually helicopters, and they are used when someone needs urgent care and must be transported to a hospital quickly.
Advanced life support: Advanced life support, or ALS, is what highly trained emergency professionals can administer. This may be done prior to or when a patient reaches a hospital. ALS typically includes more invasive medical care, like IV placement, manual defibrillation, and placing a breathing tube.
Basic life support: Basic life support, or BLS, is what emergency professionals are trained to administer. EMTs and first responders are among the professionals that can usually administer BLS. These life saving techniques are usually done in the ambulance before the patient reaches the hospital. BLS tends to be less invasive than ALS. Controlling bleeding, performing CPR, and managing airways are a few BLS tasks.
EMT: An emergency medical technician, or EMT, is an individual who is trained to provide healthcare to patients who are being transported via an ambulance or other emergency vehicle, though these professionals may also work for fire departments and other places. EMTs can provide BLS and, sometimes, ALS.
First responder: A first responder is anyone who is called out to handle emergencies and can also administer BLS. This may include AMTs, firefighters, and polce officers.
Triage: Triage is the process of sorting emergency room patients into groups according to the urgency of their conditions. This helps ensure that those who are severely ill or seriously injured are handled first.
Trauma surgeon: A trauma surgeon is a doctor who has ample experience handling emergency surgical procedures.