Appendix 9-050 - Definitions

CMH EMS & MIH Protocols


FUTURE REVISION: Need to correlate this list with approved list found in PolicyStat and with Master Concordanate file on PreHospital file server.

Term Description / definition
ABN Advance Beneficiary Notice
AC Antecubital
ACLS Advanced Cardiac Life Support
AED Automated External Defibrillator
AEMT Advanced Emergency Medical Technician
A-Fib Atrial Fibrillation
AHA American Heart Association
ALOC Altered Level of Consciousness
ALS Advanced Life Support. An ALS ambulance is a ground ambulance staffed and equipped to provide advanced life support consistent with state laws, policies, procedures, and protocols. Referred to and identified on the radio as "Medic."
AMLS Advanced Medical Life Support
APGAR Activity, Pulse, Grimace, Appearance, and Respiration
AVL Automatic Vehicle Locator. The device that makes use of Global Positioning System (GPS) to allow the ambulances to be remotely tracked. AVL information should be used to dispatch ambulances efficiently.
BCFD Bolivar City Fire Department
BEMS Bureau of Emergency Medical Services
BiPAP Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure
BLS Basic Life Support. A BLS ambulance is a ground ambulance staffed and equipped to provide basic life support in full compliance with applicable laws, policies, procedures, and protocols. Referred to and identified on the radio as "Squad."
BP Blood Pressure
BSA Body Surface Area
BSI Body Substance Isolation
BVM Bag Valve Mask
CAD Coronary Artery Disease or Computer Aided Dispatch
CCMH Cedar County Memorial Hospital
CCR Cardio-Cerebral Resuscitation
CCSO Cedar County Sheriff’s Office
CHF Congestive Heart Failure
CISD Critical Incident Stress Debriefing
CMH Citizens Memorial Hospital
CNS Central Nervous System
CO Carbon Monoxide
CO2 Carbon Dioxide
COPD Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
CPAP Continuous Positive Airway Pressure
CPR Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation
CRNA Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist
CSR Code of State Regulations
CSS Cincinnati Stroke Scale
CT Computed Tomography
CVA Cerebro-Vascular Accident
D5W 5% Dextrose in Water
D10W 10% Dextrose in Water
D25W 25% Dextrose in Water
D50W 50% Dextrose in Water
DBP Diastolic Blood Pressure
Dispatch Center, Designated EMS A dispatch center approved and authorized by CMH Board of Directors to dispatch CMH ambulances or EMH Board of Directors to dispatch EMH ambulances.
Dispatch, Primary Brief dispatch information given to responding units when they are initally dispatched.
Dispatch, Secondary Dispatch information given to responding units after they go en route that repeats the location and additional information pertaining to the response.
DNR Do Not Resuscitate
DSI Delayed Sequence Intubation
ECG Electrocardiogram
ED Emergency Department
EKG Electrocardiogram
EMA Emergency Management Agency
EMD Emergency Medical Dispatch
EMH Ellett Memorial Hospital
EMR Emergency Medical Responder
EMS Emergency Medical Services
EMT Emergency Medical Technician
EOS End Of Shift
ePCR Electronic Patient Care Report
ER Emergency Room
ET Endotracheal
ETA Estimated Time of Arrival. The estimated time emergency medical services resources will arrive at a specific location.
EtCO2 End Tidal Carbon Dioxide
ETOH Ethanol
FDA Food and Drug Administration
First Responder Agency An agency which responds to medical emergencies as part of the organized EMS system in order to provide Basic Life Support (BLS) procedures prior to the arrival of an ambulance or to assist ambulance personnel in their performance of rendering emergency medical care to a person or persons suffering from an illness or injury.
GCS Glasgow Comma Scale
GI Gastrointestinal
HF Hydrofluoric Acid
HFR Humansville Fire Rescue
HR Heart Rate
HWFR Halfway Fire Rescue
IAEMD International Academies of Emergency Medical Dispatch
ICP Intracranial Pressure
ICU Intensive Care Unit
IDLH Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health
IM Intramuscular
IN Intranasal
Incident time - Dispatch The time the responding crew is initially alerted to the incident and has received enough information to respond appropriately (i.e. location, chief complaint, priority dispatch code).
Incident time - En route The time an ambulance has departed from current location in order to respond to a request for an ambulance.
Incident time - In service Also known as available time. The time an ambulance is available on communications equipment to respond as directed by the Designated EMS Dispatch Center or out of station mobile available for call.
Incident time - On scene Also known as arrival time. The time at which the responding ambulance is no greater than 200 feet from the location that the ambulance will be parked on scene or arrive at a staging area. The time that an ambulance arrives at an appropriate receiving location or at the rendezvous point with another EMS provider.
Incident time - Received Also known as time of call. The time the request for the ambulance was made. The time that the callback number, location, and symptom(s)/type of incident has been received at the Designated EMS Dispatch Center so that a proper ambulance dispatch can be determined and made.
Incident time - Transporting Also known as cleared scene or en-route to hospital time. The time an ambulance departs from the scene en route to an appropriate receiving location or rendezvous point. Cleared scene time may be the same as in service time if no transport is being made and the ambulance is available for another response.
IO Intraosseous
ITLS International Trauma Life Support
IV Intravenous
KED Kendrick Extrication Device
LBBB Left Bundle Branch Block
LEO Law Enforcement Officer
LMA Laryngeal Mask Airway
LOC Level of Consciousness
LR Lactated Ringers
LTC Long Term Care
MAP Mean Arterial Pressure
MARCHE Massive hemorrhaging, Airway, Respiration, Circulation, Hypothermia, Everything Else
MCI Mass Casualty Incident
MCI Plan The procedure followed by the EMS Agency in the event that an MCI is declared.
Medical Emergency A situation in which there is a real or perceived need for immediate action, attention, or decision-making to prevent mortality or serious morbidity.
MDI Metered-Dose Inhaler
MFPD Morrisville Fire Protection District
MD Medical Doctor
mEq Milliequivalent
MI Myocardial Infarction
MOI Mechanism of Injury
MOLST Medical Orders for Life Sustaining Treatments
MPDS Medical Priority Dispatch System
MS Medical Surgery or Med-Surg Unit
NaHCO3 Sodium Bicarbonate
NCN No Care Needed
NEB Nebulized
NFPA National Fire Protection Association
NIH National Institute of Health
NIHSS National Institute of Health Stroke Screen
NOI Nature of Illness
NPA Nasopharyngeal Airway
NS Normal Saline
NSAID Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug
O2 Oxygen
OB Obstetrics
OPA Oropharyngeal Airway
PCCD Polk County Central Dispatch
PCR Patient Care Report
PEA Pulseless Electrical Activity
PHFPD Pleasant Hope Fire Protection District
PHS Pre-Hospital Services
PHTLS Pre-Hospital Trauma Life Support
PICC Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter
PO Per Orem - By mouth
POLST Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment
Posting The term used to denote the strategic location of an ambulance for the purpose of providing the most reasonable response times to an area.
PPE Personal Protective Equipment
PRC Patient Refusal of Care
QR Quick Response barcode
QRS Ventricular depolarization
QT Space between ventricular depolarization and polarization
RACE Regional Response to Cardiovascular Emergencies
RBBB Right Bundle Branch Block
RN Registered Nurse
RR R-wave to R-wave
RSI Rapid Sequence Intubation
RT Respiratory Therapy
RTF Rescue Task Force
SAMPLE Signs/Symptoms, Allergies, Medications, Pertinent history, Last oral intake, Events
SBP Systolic Blood Pressure
Size-up Also known as windshield report. Upon arrival on scene a report of what is seen by the crew.
SL Sub Lingual
SME Subject Matter Expert
SMR Spinal Motion Restriction
SpO2 Saturation of Peripheral Oxygen
SQ Subcutaneous
SSRI Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor
Stage The term used to denote the strategic movement of an ambulance to a specific area to provide a safe area for standby while the scene is made safe.
Standby The term used to denote that an EMS vehicle is staged near an activity for which it is presumed there is a high likelihood that a medical emergency will occur.
Status [one], [two], etc. The terminology to depict how many ambulances are available for response in the geographic response area. For example, "status one" indicates there is only one ALS ambulance available in the county.
STEMI ST-Segment Elevated Myocardial Infarction
TES Threat Elimination Specialist
TPOPP Transportable Physician Orders for Patient Preferences
TXA Tranexamic Acid
VA Department of Veterans Affairs
VF Ventricular Fibrillation
V-Fib Ventricular Fibrillation
VT Ventricular Tachycardia
V-Tach Ventricular Tachycardia
WPW Wolff Parkinson White

Citations:


Change Log:

DateLink to
previous
version
Description of change
04/14/15Created this section at the specific request of Dr. Merk.
08/24/17pdfRemoved this section due to combining abbreviations with the index.
03/28/20Added this section.
06/08/20pdfChanged name from appendix to definitions. Added definitions from Policy PHS01-35.
06/15/21pdfMoved to emsprotocols.online

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