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Border Injuries: An Analysis of Prehospital Demographics, Mechanisms, and Patterns of Injuries Encountered by USBP EMS Agents in the El Paso (Texas USA) Sector

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 May 2017

Russell A. Baker
Russell A. Baker*
Affiliation:
Texas Tech Foster School of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, El Paso, TexasUSA
*
Correspondence: Russell A. Baker, DO, FACEP Texas Tech University, Health Science Center Paul L. Foster School of Medicine Department of Emergency Medicine 4801 Alberta Ave. B3200 El Paso, Texas 79905 USA E-mail: Russell.Baker@ttuhsc.edu
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Abstract

Study Objective

The aim of this study was to evaluate Emergency Medical Services (EMS), use, injury mechanisms, prehospital assessments, and injuries among those receiving aid from the United States Border Patrol (USBP) in the El Paso (Texas USA) Sector.

Design

This is a time-series, retrospective analysis of all prehospital data for injuries among patients receiving care from USBP EMS on the US Mexico border in the El Paso sector from February 6, 2014 to February 6, 2016.

Results

A total of 473 documented EMS encounters occurred in this two-year period and demonstrated a male gender predominance (male 63%; female 37%) with the most prominent ages between 22-40 years old. The most prevalent EMS call types were medical (55%) and trauma (42%). The most common chief complaints were an injured or painful extremity (35%) and rash (13%). The most common USBP EMS provider primary impression was traumatic injury (34%), followed by fever/infection (17%) and extremity injury (7%); however, the most common secondary impression was also extremity injury (20%). The most common mechanism of injury was fall (26%) and motor vehicle accident (MVA; 22%). The USBP EMS was the first provider on scene in 96% of the MVAs.

Conclusion:

The author reports on injury patterns, mechanisms, chief complaints, EMS impressions, as well as demographics of patients reporting to USBP EMS. A knowledge of these injury patterns will be useful to EMS administrators and physicians along the US Mexico border.

BakerRA. Border Injuries: An Analysis of Prehospital Demographics, Mechanisms, and Patterns of Injuries Encountered by USBP EMS Agents in the El Paso (Texas USA) Sector. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2017;32(4):431–436.

Keywords

border injuriesEl PasoEMSUS border patrol
Type
Original Research
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 32 , Issue 4 , August 2017 , pp. 431 - 436
Copyright
© World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2017 

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Footnotes

Conflicts of interest: none

References

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