Table 5 Frequency of using management strategies in heat-emergencies among patients with at least one potential heat emergency symptom and patients with a confirmed diagnosis
Management | Patients with potential heat-emergencies | Patients diagnosed by ED physicians | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pre-intervention (2017) (n = 4181) | Post-intervention (2018) (n = 4022) | P-Value | Pre-intervention (2017) (n = 125) | Post-intervention (2018) (n = 302) | P-Value | |
At least one complete vital signsa | 784 (18.75%) | 977 (24.29%) |  < 0.001* | 12 (9.6%) | 207 (68.5%) |  < 0.001* |
Temperature monitoring | 41 (0.9%) | 496 (12.9%) |  < 0.001* | 0 (0%) | 149 (49.3%) |  < 0.001* |
External cooling measures | ||||||
 Water sponging | 89 (1.3%) | 210 (3.4%) |  < 0.001* | 8 (6.4%) | 79 (26.2%) |  < 0.001* |
 Use pedestal fan | 2922 (43.1%) | 3094 (50.6%) |  < 0.001* | 21 (16.8%) | 29 (9.6%) | 0.035* |
 Removal of extra body clothing | 2 (0%) | 3 (0.1%) | 0.624 | 0 (0%) | 1 (0.3%) | 0.52 |
 Ice packs at groins, neck, and axilla | 6 (0.1%) | 9 (0.2%) | 0.395 | 0 (0%) | 4 (1.3%) | 0.196 |
Treatment | ||||||
 Administration of IV fluids | 1885 (42.1%) | 1804 (46.8%) | 0.833 | 85 (68%) | 223 (73.8%) | 0.221 |