March 21, 2019

NHTSA Office of EMS Partners with AHRQ to Research and Update Guideline for Treating Pain

The opioid crisis has raised questions about the best way to address patients’ pain in the field. While there’s no evidence tying prehospital administration of narcotics to addiction or overdose deaths, finding alternatives to managing pain could reduce the amount of opioids in the field. At the same time, it is critical that patients’ pain is not ignored, and safe and effective treatments are available to EMS clinicians.

To help address the issue, the NHTSA Office of EMS is working with AHRQ experts to examine the research and evidence related to prehospital management of acute pain by EMS. AHRQ has selected researchers at the University of Connecticut Evidence Based Practice Center to steer the effort, which will result in a report that will be used to update the evidence-based guidelines for prehospital analgesia in trauma, originally published online in 2013.

NHTSA Recommends that Daylight Savings Time Should Signal Inspections

Daylight saving time has long been used as a reminder to check smoke detector batteries to protect your home from fire. It’s also a time to check for vehicle recalls. Every vehicle recall affects the safety of your car or truck and its drivers, passengers, and others on the road. So add checking for recalls to your spring and fall to-do lists.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recommends that you not only check batteries, but recalls for items such as vehicles, child safety seats and tires as well. See this web page for more information.

New Report Details States' Emergency Preparedness

The 2019 Trust for America’s Health report, “Ready or Not: Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters and Bioterrorism”, tracks public health emergency preparedness related to disasters and disease outbreaks in the United States. The report documents progress in the nation’s level of preparedness as well as geographical areas still in need of improvement. The report also identifies specific action-steps, that if taken, would improve a state’s overall level of emergency preparedness. The 2019 report finds that states have made progress in key areas, including public health funding and participation in coalitions. However, performance in other areas, such as flu vaccination, hospital patient safety, and paid time off for workers, has not improved.

The EMSC Innovation & Improvement Center (EIIC) is supported in part by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Maternal and Child Health Bureau Emergency Medical Services for Children grant number U07MC29829. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S.Government.