Appendix A: Methods Used to Collect Data


Hospital Data on Injuries and Deaths

This study draws on injury data collected by Los Angeles County Department of Health's Emergency Medical Services Agency (LAEMSA), and Public Health Program, and the Federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The LAEMSA data was collected during the civil disturbance using the ReddiNet and the HEAR radio system, and by telephone survey shortly after the riots ended.

Hospital data was collected for 97 hospitals. This data has several drawbacks:

    The data collected during the event may undercount the number of injured because an unknown number of the injured were treated without a record being generated.

    Some hospital systems are not able to keep track of patients on a real time basis. Only estimates were immediately available for reporting, in some cases. For example, reported injury totals for a particular hospital and overall totals reported by LAEMSA are different from those gathered by the Southern California Hospital Council. The difference results from when the surveys were conducted. The emergency department log review being conducted by LA DHS should help resolve this problem.

    Civil disturbance related injuries cannot be easily separated from normal emergency department traffic. Hospital emergency departments were asked to report data on the number of people coming to their department for care during the event. Afterwards, they were asked to adjust their data to identify injuries that were only civil disturbance related. Either identification depends on the opinion of the evaluator reviewing the records or upon the assignment of the injury to this category upon presentation by emergency department staff. In the later case, the injured person is being asked to incriminate themselves as having been involved in possible illegal activity. In the earlier case, the records abstractor is using various assumptions about what a civil disturbance related injury is rather than depending on the data to define the category.

    The real time data was collected at varying intervals; 18 hours after the event, then six hour intervals, finishing with 12 hour intervals.

The CDC collected data from Martin Luther King Hospital and Saint Francis Hospital emergency department records on May 4, the Monday immediately following, the event. Data was collected from Saint Francis Hospital and from Martin Luther King Hospital. Both hospitals were still in the process of recovering from the event making data collection difficult. Additional information and limitations on this data is discussed in the text.

Hospital Administrator and Emergency Department Staff Interviews

An open ended questionnaire was developed by EMSA and reviewed by LAEMSA staff. Interviews were arranged by LAEMSA with key hospital administrators and emergency department nurse and physician administrators. Sometimes additional administrators and staff were made available. Interviews were conducted at the hospitals. A draft of the study was provided for review and comment.

Fire Service and Private Ambulance Company Interviews

Again, an open ended questionnaire was developed by EMSA and reviewed by LAEMSA staff. A round table interview was held at LA County Fire Command and Control Building with civil disturbance field and EOC response- coordinators from Los Angeles County Fire Department, Los Angeles City Fire Department, Inglewood Fire Department, Compton Fire Department, and Long Beach Fire Department. This proved to be an excellent method for developing information about the event. Many of the participants had not discussed their response with others. Detailed conversations developed that filled out difficult to understand descriptions. A separate interview was conducted with Los Angeles City Fire Department responders. Follow up telephone calls clarified responses.

Goodhew Ambulance Company administrative staff were interviewed using an open ended questionnaire.

In both cases, a draft of the study was provided for review and comment.

EMT Survey

Fire service and private EMTs were surveyed to obtain information about their experience with delivering emergency medical care in the field. Selection of the sample proved to be problematic. None of the agencies could determine, without considerable cost, exactly which EMT had been dispatched into South Central Los Angeles for civil disturbance related transports. For this reason 200 questionnaires were sent out to agencies that responded into the area as follows:

    60 to the Los Angeles County Fire Department;

    60 to the Los Angeles City Fire Department;

    40 to the Long Beach Fire Department;

    30 to the Inglewood Fire Department;

    20 to the Goodhew Ambulance Company; and,

    20 to the Adams Ambulance Company.

A check off block was included on the questionnaire itself for the respondent to indicate if they had been dispatched into South Central Los Angeles. If they hadn't they were instructed to return the questionnaire without filling it out. Self addressed, stamped envelopes were provided for mailing. At least one follow up phone call was made to each agency requesting return of the questionnaires.

A total of 77 questionnaires were returned, a 38.5 % return rate. Of these, 11 were self identified as not having been dispatched into South Central Los Angeles. A total of 66 (33%) questionnaires met study criteria.

The return rate from EMTs actually dispatched into the area is probably higher. One returned questionnaire from an Inglewood Firefighter noted that Inglewood is not part of South Central Los Angeles and that they weren't dispatched into the area. This is also probably true of the Long Beach Fire Department who kept most of their firefighters in the city. This is a reasonable conclusion because LA County Fire provided mutual aid to Long Beach.

Los Angeles County fire removed some of the questions asking about law enforcement protection. It was therefore possible to identify their questionnaires. Their EMTs returned 34 (56.6%) of 60 mailed to them. Of these, 24 (40%) questionnaires met study dispatch criteria. Private ambulance EMTs (identifiable by a check off on the questionnaire) returned only 8 (20%) of the 40 questionnaires sent to them. This leaves a proximately 34 (56.6%) returns from the 60 mailed to the Los Angeles City Fire Department and other fire departments.

Los Angeles City Fire Service reported that 615 EMS transports were made during the first four days. Goodhew reported 130 during this period. The result is an overall transport total of 745. According to survey respondents, only one person was carried 85% of the time. This would mean that approximately 856 (arrived at by multiplying 1. 15 times 745 transports) of the injured were transported by these agencies to a hospital.

Hospital data estimates that between 30-40% of the injured were transported by ambulance to them. Based on the number of hospital injuries, that would have been from 714 to 953 individuals during the first four days. EMTs responding to the questionnaire reported transporting, an estimated 539 patients or about 67% of total, if we take 800 as a reasonable guess based on hospital data.

Using transport agency questionnaire return rates, and estimates of transports made, it would seem that around 60% of the EMTs who responded into South Central Los Angeles returned their questionnaire.


Medical Care for the Injured

Continue to Appendix B: Causes of Death

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