Protocols 48–50
Emergency Department Protocol Commons
Consultation Edition, Version 0.9
Phase VII addresses three high-risk emergency interventions in which failures of preparation, staffing, equipment, medication safety, monitoring, rescue, communication or aftercare may rapidly result in severe harm or death.
The protocols provide structured pathways for emergency airway management and ventilatory support, major haemorrhage and blood-product use, and procedural sedation, analgesia and recovery—from patient selection and immediate stabilization through team preparation, checklist use, treatment, physiological monitoring, complication rescue, reassessment, admission, transfer or safe discharge.
These protocols are intended for professional review and responsible local adaptation. They are not approved clinical policies and must not be implemented without verification against current guidance, local competencies, credentialing requirements, staffing, equipment, oxygen supply, monitoring capability, medication formularies, blood-bank services, laboratory support, specialist and transfer arrangements, legislation and institutional governance requirements.
Download Phase VII
The complete phase may be downloaded in either of the following formats:
Download the complete Phase VII package — PDF and editable Word copies
Download the Phase VII editable Word package for local adaptation
Readers may also review the individual PDF consultation copies below.
How to Review This Phase
Reviewers are not expected to comment on all three protocols.
Please select the protocols most relevant to your experience and consider:
Clinical safety and accuracy
Staffing, competence, credentialing and team-role requirements
Equipment, oxygen, suction, ventilation and monitoring readiness
Medication selection, dosing, labelling and administration safety
Airway rescue, capnography and post-intubation care
Major-haemorrhage activation, blood availability and traceability
Transfusion-reaction recognition and management
Sedation adverse-event rescue, recovery and discharge criteria
Paediatric, maternal and older-adult considerations
Referral, critical-care and interfacility transfer arrangements
Resource-variable and small-island realities
Important omissions or unnecessary complexity
Please submit a separate feedback form for each protocol being reviewed.
Submit feedback on a Phase VII protocol
Protocol 48 — Emergency Airway Management and Ventilatory Support
This protocol provides a standardized pathway for patients with actual or impending airway or ventilatory failure who require emergency respiratory support.
It covers airway assessment, oxygenation, preoxygenation, physiological optimization, rapid-sequence or awake airway management, difficult-airway rescue, waveform-capnography confirmation, post-intubation sedation, non-invasive support, initial mechanical ventilation and safe transport of ventilated patients.
Read or download the PDF consultation copy
Protocol 49 — Major Haemorrhage, Blood Products, and Transfusion Reactions
This protocol addresses active or suspected life-threatening bleeding and the safe emergency use of blood components in adults, children, pregnant and postpartum patients.
It covers major-haemorrhage activation, immediate source control, damage-control resuscitation, emergency-release and compatible blood selection, product administration, correction of coagulopathy, hypothermia and hypocalcaemia, anticoagulant reversal, transfusion-reaction management, deactivation, handover and transfer.
Read or download the PDF consultation copy
Protocol 50 — Procedural Sedation, Analgesia, and Recovery
This protocol provides a structured pathway for safe and humane procedural sedation during urgent diagnostic or therapeutic procedures in the emergency department.
It covers patient and procedure selection, analgesia and less invasive alternatives, pre-sedation assessment, fasting and aspiration-risk decisions, staffing, monitoring, medicine safety, time-out, adverse-event rescue, structured recovery, documentation, admission, transfer and safe discharge.
Read or download the PDF consultation copy
Submit Feedback
Feedback from emergency clinicians, nurses, anaesthesia and critical-care teams, respiratory professionals, surgeons, obstetric and paediatric teams, haematology and transfusion services, pharmacists, ambulance and transfer personnel, biomedical engineers, administrators, patient-safety personnel and other relevant reviewers is welcomed.
Please identify:
The protocol number
The relevant section or page
The concern or recommendation
Suggested replacement wording where possible
Supporting evidence or local experience
Whether the issue may represent an urgent patient-safety concern
Submit feedback on the Emergency Department Protocol Commons
Complete Protocol Index
Browse all 59 protocols and download individual PDF or editable Word copies
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