I had the pleasure to spend a shift on an ambulance with Dr. Maia Tomic in the city of Preko, Croatia. This beautiful island is a 10 minute speed boat ride from the main city of Zadar. The ambulance assigned to the island is staffed by a MD/RN/driver combination. Unique to their care delivery model is the need to deal with the isolation that accompanies practicing EMS on an island without a hospital. When a patient needs to be transported to a hospital they are brought to the dock, placed on a medical speedboat and accompanied by the medical team to the mainland. During my shift we transported an elderly male with fever and abdominal pain.
The medications carried by the EMS team are quite different than in Minnesota. This is in part due to the physical isolation of the island and in part to the physician staffing of the team. Some drugs not found in routine practice in MN but common in Croatian EMS include aminophillin, verapamil, gentamicin and injectable toradol. Looking foreword to going to the division of mountain rescue next!
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