Premergency First Aid, CPR and AED Manual

2 PREmergency Scene Management

Ongoing Care Continuing and During Transport

As you treat your patient, continue to monitor for any life threats (ABCs). The treatment of specific injury or illness is found in the following chapters. In some cases, especially if response time for Paramedics is fast, your best course of action may be simply to monitor the ABCs, support any injury found, and wait for additional help.

Once you have finished your assessments and initial treatment of the patient, you move into the Ongoing Care phase, the period of time until you deliver your patient to the next level of care. At its simplest, the next level of care may be a family member, friend, or coworker who will transport the patient with a minor injury to the hospital. It may also mean a Paramedic for a patient with a life threatening injury. In rare cases, you may need to accompany a patient during transport to the next level of care. If the patient’s condition requires it and Paramedics are delayed or unavailable, then transport to the next level of medical care by alternate means may be necessary.

Always look before you touch. Often you can locate areas of deformity, open wounds, bruising, and swelling by looking carefully. This approach minimizes patient discomfort.

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