In the event of emergency response to large-scale incidents, such as a mass casualty incident (MCI) or a mass casualty incident-infectious disease (MCI-ID), regular training is essential in order to have experienced emergency personnel available in the event of an incident. Due to the pandemic drills often had to be cancelled or were only possible with small groups of people. It was often not possible to simulate a large-scale emergency with actors, so that the trainees could not be offered realistic scenarios of a mass casualty or disease incident. As part of two research projects, a digital platform for conducting training was used to avoid the risk of infection between participants during the exercises, so that on-site personnel deployment could be reduced to a minimum. The goal of this work was to evaluate end-user acceptance of the digital solution approaches.

The prognosis of stroke patients can be improved by adherence to clinical guidelines.

The pandemic has caused several changes in the emergency care system. The deployment figures in emergency medical services have shown atypical fluctuations. This has also been explained by changes in behavior and an increased sense of stress among the population. Existing research provides hints for the increased incidence of mental health symptoms in emergency care during ongoing pandemics.

In July 2021, the Medical Task Force 47 was deployed to the flood disaster in western Germany as part of the cross-regional disaster relief system. With the aim of deriving possible improvements in disaster management, it was scientifically evaluated. The focus of this study was the strategy to build up and to maintain a responsive and efficient rescue system.

The balance between stress perception and recovery of emergency medical service personnel during service and leisure time is an essential indicator of mental and physical health. It ensures success in emergency medical care and is also a health policy and economic factor for any organization. The aim of the study was to evaluate the recovery stress level of paramedics in the first and second waves of the SARS-CoV‑2 pandemic.

The call volume in emergency medical service (EMS) dispatch centers has seen a drastic increase for many years now, especially looking at urban regions of Germany. In this context, the control mechanisms of the EMS dispatch center can be utilized to break new ground regarding the handling of emergency calls and dispatch practice in order to manage incoming calls as efficiently as possible. This article clearly explains standardized protocol-based emergency medical call taking, internal structuring of control centers and pathways also during the COVID-19 pandemic, using the Berlin EMS dispatch enter as an example. The terms structured and standardized protocol-based emergency medical call taking should be differentiated, whereby the standardized call taking process is more binding and based on international standards with high reliability. Quality management measures ensure that the protocol is applied in accordance with the regulations. Improved collaboration and automated transfer of data between EMS dispatch centers and the control centers for non-life-threatening physician on-call services enable low-priority calls to be forwarded on a regular basis. Interprofessional teams in EMS can improve the care of specific patient groups in a targeted manner and avoid transport to emergency departments. Standardized protocol-based and software-based emergency call taking currently represents best practice according to medical science, supporting a nationwide implementation. Furthermore, an intensive collaboration between EMS control centers and control centers for non-life-threatening physician on-call services is recommended as well as the introduction of specialized EMS resources and app-based alerting of first responders.

Due to legal regulations in Germany, public acute and emergency (A&E) hospitals-along with responsible authorities, emergency medical services, and other institutions such as the state medical associations-are committed to participate in civil protection. This participation includes the need to create and update emergency plans for external and internal crises and to take part in disaster drills. In fact, so far there is only little literature to prove whether and to what extent hospitals fulfill their obligations on this topic.

Survival chances after out-of-hospital cardiac arrests caused by hyperdynamic electric cardiac rhythms can be significantly improved by early defibrillation with automated external defibrillators (AEDs). As postulated in international guidelines, the resulting hands-off intervals should not exceed 10 s.

High quality of care in prehospital emergency medicine is characterized by guideline-based therapy. The basic prerequisite for this therapy is the availability of the required drugs in accordance with the current guideline recommendations. It is currently unclear whether this is guaranteed nationwide. There is no uniform standard regarding which drugs must be stocked in emergency medical services (EMS) vehicles staffed by physicians in Germany. The aim of the present study is to identify important diagnoses and the drugs required for their therapy. In a second step, medical directors throughout Germany were interviewed about current drugs available in their physician-staffed EMS vehicles and these were compared with the previously defined diagnosis-dependent drug lists.

Today there exists only limited knowledge regarding the care of critically ill nontrauma (CINT) patients in the resuscitation room (RR) in Germany. The goal of this observational study was to describe the management of CINT patients in the RR of a nonuniversity emergency department.

It is well known that alcohol consumption and abuse, as well as alcohol-induced problems, increase during difficult economic times. Previous studies showed increased alcohol consumption in the 2003 SARS outbreak in China. The review examines global changes in alcohol consumption under current SARS-CoV‑2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) pandemic.

Stressors due to the workload in the ambulance service are numerous and can be positively counteracted by work-related behaviors and experiences. We analyzed the subjective perceptions of workload and stress as a function of work-related behavior and experience patterns among emergency service personnel (EMP).

In terms of civil protection, there is nothing against self-critical reflection of events, such as the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, and learning lessons from them. In the past, however, this has often not led to anticipating future situations, their consequences, and better preparation. To some extent, this seems like a Greek tragedy: conscious disregard-except that this must not be fate. In addition to pandemics, important scenarios for which civil protection in Germany is inadequately prepared, according to the author's assessment, include attacks and accidents involving CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear) hazardous substances, mass casualties in the event of a terror attack with hospitals or rescue services as the target of the attacks, as well as prolonged power or drinking water failures, and disruptions in information and communication structures following cyberattacks. There is an urgent need to identify existing problems and demand functional concepts for hospitals, rescue services, and rapid response teams. Responsible authorities, in turn, must develop, finance, and implement concepts.

The S3 guideline on the treatment of patients with severe/multiple injuries by the German Association of the Scientific Medical Societies was updated between 2020 and 2022. This article describes the essence of the new chapter "Stop the bleed-prehospital" and the revised chapter "Coagulation management and volume therapy".

Changes in patient care occurred as a result of the SARS-CoV‑2 virus, and both intrahospital and prehospital care were profoundly affected. Public shutdowns during lockdown periods were intended to prevent overstretching existing resources, resulting in noticeable changes in medical care for both elective treatments and emergency medicine. This study now considered the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on air ambulance services at a central air ambulance site in 2020 compared to the previous 2 years.

Critically ill patients in need of specialized diagnostic or therapeutic procedures, but are being cared for in a hospital without such equipment, have to be transferred to appropriate centers without discontinuation of current critical care (interhospital critical care transfer). These transfers are resource intensive, challenging, and require high logistical effort, which must be managed by a specialized and highly trained team, predeployment planning and efficient crew-resource management strategies. If planned adequately, interhospital critical care transfers can be performed safely without frequent adverse events. Beside routine interhospital critical care transfers, there are special missions (e.g., for patients in quarantine or supported by extracorporeal organ support) that might require adaption of the team composition or standard equipment. This article describes interhospital critical care transport missions including their different phases and special circumstances.