Integrated Clinical Clerkship in Emergency Medicine AY 2021- 2022

Acute life-threatening conditions narrow the gap between life and death, and signs and symptoms telling of such conditions should be recognized immediately. This allows us to provide appropriate and timely interventions done for pre-hospital care in the hopes of preventing untimely deaths. Pre-hospital care allows us to address serious and time-dependent conditions that could lead to life-threatening complications and outcomes, and in doing so, we are preventing or delaying the patient’s deterioration so that a definitive management may be eventually provided. Since access to healthcare, especially in our local setting, is inconsistent to many population groups, pre-hospital care provides the acute management that any patient needs from the time the life-threatening condition starts until the patient is observed by a physician or any healthcare worker in a hospital. This inconsistency in access to healthcare is evidently seen in the documentary, as patients were not provided the appropriate pre-hospital care during their travel to the local health center or hospital. It was not even provided even before their travel, while at their homes. Given that there are many factors that may hinder access to healthcare, pre-hospital care is one of the things within our control that may play a role in bridging the patients to their healthcare providers as their conditions are addressed while they are seeking care.