Determining Severe Respiratory Distress in Older Out-of-Hospital Patients

This preliminary investigation represents the first step in developing a clinical decision rule (CDR) to assist out-of-hospital providers in caring for older patients in respiratory distress and to standardize the way they are documented in the out- of-hospital medical record.

Abstract

Medical record data were available on seven out-of-hospital clinical indicators and an ED measure of severe distress. Further work needs to be done to refine the operational definitions of the indicators and to standardize the way they are documented in the out-of-hospital medical record.