Use of a limited lights and siren protocol in the prehospital setting vs standard usage

Abstract Objective Our objective was to determine if implementing a standard lights and sirens (L&S) protocol would reduce their use and if this had any effect on patient disposition. Methods In a prospective cohort study, we trained emergency medical services (EMS) personnel from 4 towns in an L&S protocol and enrolled control personnel from 4 addition towns that were not using the protocol. We compare the use of L&S between them over a 6-month period. Our protocol restricted the usage of L&S to patients who had maladies requiring expedited transport. Emergency medical services personnel from the control towns had no such restrictions and were not aware that we were tracking their usage of L&S. We also considered if patient disposition was affected by the judicious usage of L&S. Results Prehospital EMS personnel who were trained in an L&S protocol were 5.6 times less likely to use L&S when compared with those not trained. Of the 808 patients transported by both types of workers, no difference in patient disposition was observed. Conclusions Our protocol significantly reduced the use of L&S. Judicious use of L&S has significant implications for transport safety. By allowing for selective transport with L&S usage, we observed no impact in patient disposition.