Vienna EMS triumphs as winner of International Prehospital Emergency Care Competition
An integrated EMS team from four different Vienna ambulance services won the prestigious Rallye Rejviz 2007 International EMS Competition held in the Jesenik Mountains in the Czech Republic.
The Rallye Rejviz (RR) was created in 1997 as part of an EMS Conference celebrating the 20th anniversary of the EMS in Jesenik. The main idea was to encourage and promote international co-operation and communication between EMS personnel at a professional level.
The event runs over one and a half days and is based on the concept of testing emergency medical, driving, and management skills in a friendly, yet competitive and very realistic setting.
As the term “rally” implies, competing teams have to drive from point A to point B to point C, obeying all traffic laws and without exceeding speed limits. Local police enforce the laws and any violations lead to a reduction of points. At each station, realistic scenarios are staged using actors. Some stations may occur at night and each team is required to apply theoretical and practical skills using a variety of different techniques, equipment and systems.
This year’s scenarios included:
• 20 injured patients after a bus collides with a local train
• rescue of a church aid with fractured femur from the top of a church tower
• medical care of a nun with lower abdominal pain, accompanied by a priest experiencing chest pain while the crew attends to the nun
• full cardiac arrest
The evaluation criteria is similar to competitions held in the United States. Correct skills must be utilized and knowledge of emergency medical protocols, including ACLS, correct medications, and others, must be demonstrated. Safety aspects are monitored as are social interactions with the patient and bystanders. A significant difference between the RR and competitions held in the United States, is the fact that teams (whose second language is English) are also judged on patient assessment ability in English.
Depending on their home nation, the various teams involved in the 2007 RR consisted of:
• ALS Paramedics
• Driver, Nurse, Paramedic
• EMT, Physician, Nurse
• EMT, Paramedic, Physician
• EMT, Nurse, Emergency Physician
The 29 starting Teams came from 16 Nations such as Japan, Ukraine, Netherlands, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Austria.
In 2004, three EMS professionals from the Vienna (Austria) Red Cross won the 2004 international ambulance segment. Last year a Vienna EMS interagency team of four people won.
This years team was completely staffed by new people. It consisted of:
Branislav Hornak, EMT-I (Vienna Red Cross EMS)
Carsten Harz, EMT-P (St. Johns Ambulance Service)
Manfred Führer, EMT-P (Samaritian Ambulance Service)
Bernhard Saxinger, EMT-P (Vienna Municipal EMS)
The team was managed by Vienna Red Cross Chief, Christoph Redelsteiner, a US trained paramedic with licences in Austria, Germany, and the US. Christoph has coached four different teams starting at the rallye and won three times. He denies offers to improve Austrians soccer team and gives the credit to his different crews.
For further information regarding the Rallye Rejviz, please visit the official website:
