prehospital

Prehospital care is the medical care provided to patients before they reach a hospital. It encompasses emergency medical services (EMS) and on-scene interventions delivered in homes, streets, wilderness, or other locations, and during transport to definitive care. The primary goals are to assess, stabilize, and manage acute illness and injury, provide life-sustaining support, and shorten time to definitive treatment while ensuring patient safety.

Care is delivered by a range of trained responders, including emergency medical technicians (EMTs), advanced EMTs, paramedics, and, in some systems, nurses or physicians working in mobile units. Dispatch centers coordinate responses and provide triage and instructions to bystanders. Settings include ground ambulances, air ambulances (helicopters and fixed-wing), water rescue units, and field clinics, especially in rural or disaster contexts.

Typical on-scene interventions follow standardized protocols and include scene assessment, airway management, respiratory support, bleeding control, immobilization of suspected injuries, rapid pharmacologic treatment when indicated, and defibrillation or CPR as needed. Triage, monitoring, fluid administration, analgesia, and transport decisions are guided by local or national guidelines. The emphasis is on timely transfer to an appropriate receiving facility and quality handover to in-hospital teams.

Prehospital systems vary by country and region but share core aims: rapid, safe assessment; stabilization; and efficient transport to definitive care. Ongoing training, data collection, and quality improvement programs support system performance and patient outcomes in emergency medicine.