Park River Ambulance (ND) President Keeps Pushing Boundaries for Good
Ann Bailey Grand Forks Herald (MCT) PARK RIVER, N.D. — Park River Ambulance President Daniel Young pushes boundaries to ensure emergency health services are available not only in his hometown, but across Walsh County. Besides supervising the day-to-day operations of the city’s volunteer ambulance service and overseeing training of its members, Young, a 30-year veteran of the Park River squad, schedules classes and trains first-responders in neighboring Walsh County towns Edinburg, Lankin, Adams, Hoople and Fordville. Young’s outreach also includes teaching CPR to Park Riv...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - January 18, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: Administration and Leadership Best Practices News News Feed Spotlight EMS North Dakota Source Type: news

NIOSH Releases Report on Deadly Appleton (WI) Shooting During EMS Call
Summary of the NIOSH Firefighter Fatality Investigation On May 15, 2019, a career firefighter was killed, and a police officer and a civilian were injured after being shot while on an emergency medical services (EMS) incident involving a patient who overdosed. The firefighter was part of a three-person crew on engine 9321 that was dispatched along with a private ambulance company at approximately 5:30 p.m. to the report of a patient who had a seizure on a public bus at a bus terminal. A police officer was first on scene. The unconscious patient was successfully treated with naloxone on the bus by a paramedic and rega...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - January 18, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: News Training EMS Firefighter LODD Wisconsin Source Type: news

191 San Diego Fire-Rescue Personnel Decline COVID-19 Vaccine So Far
David Hernandez The San Diego Union-Tribune (TNS) Nearly 200 San Diego Fire-Rescue personnel have so far turned down a COVID-19 vaccine, showing reluctance as health officials scramble to protect frontline workers like firefighters from the highly infectious coronavirus. As of Wednesday, 191 personnel had declined to take the vaccine; 895 had gotten the shot, according to department figures. The vaccine is available to all of the department’s roughly 1,500 employees, including lifeguards and non-sworn staff, a spokeswoman said. The force includes 943 firefighters, who double as paramedics or emergency ...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - January 18, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: Coronavirus Industry News California San Diego Source Type: news

MD Man Arrested for Stealing, Flipping Ambulance
According to a report from WJLA, Augustus Redditt, 52, of Baltimore, Maryland, was charged with vehicle theft, driving under the influence, drug possession, and related traffic offenses after stealing and crashing an ambulance in Dorchester County. Police say they were contacted just after 8:00 p.m. on Friday, January 15, regarding a Dorchester County Emergency Medical Services ambulance that was stolen from outside the University of Maryland Medical Center. Troopers located the ambulance traveling west on Route 50 in Cambridge. No patients or other passengers were on board the ambulance at the time it was stolen. ...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - January 18, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: News Source Type: news

Gillette Stadium Opens as First Mass COVID Vaccination Site for First Responders
Jackson Cote masslive.com (MCT) Gillette Stadium is expected to open its doors Monday as Massachusetts’ first mass coronavirus vaccination site for first responders. Gov. Charlie Baker announced last week the Foxborough stadium would be turned into a large-scale vaccination facility. First doses were set to be given last Thursday to staff at the site, and first responders were scheduled to get vaccinated at the location Monday. The site was expected to administer 300 vaccines per day and then increase that number to 5,000 per day. “Potentially much bigger numbers” may follow, Baker said ...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - January 18, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: Coronavirus News News Feed First Responders Massachusetts Source Type: news

Kids Rob Cleveland (OH) EMS Workers at Gunpoint
Two Cleveland EMS workers were hurt after three kids robbed them at gunpoint, according to a report on cleveland.com. The robbery happened around 7 a.m. Saturday morning at the station on Stickney Avenue near Pearl Road. The EMS workers had just gotten off their shift and started their cars to warm them up when they were approached by the suspects, aged between 13 to 14 years old. The workers got into a confrontation with the suspects when one of the suspects pulled out a gun. The suspect with the gun ran off while the other two were arrested at the scene by police. Related What You Should Know about Self-Defen...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - January 18, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: News Cleveland EMS Ohio Police Source Type: news

New Innovation to Address System Overload by Systemizing the Field Triage and Treatment of Non-Emergent Patients
Introductory Note from JEMS Editor Emeritus A.J. Heightman, MPA, EMT-P JEMS has prided itself on introducing countless groundbreaking concepts and innovations to the EMS community since its inception in 1980. As an example, in May 1980, JEMS introduced Jack Stout’s Public Utility Model and System Status management which changed the way many EMS Systems operated. His concepts introduced new ways to maximize resources and revenue through changes in the deployment of crews and resources. In Feb. of 1981, Dr. Jeff Clawson’s dispatch priority training and the Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS); the impact and des...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - January 18, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Marc Eckstein, MD, MPH Tags: Administration and Leadership Communications & Dispatch Exclusives California EMS Prehospital Telemedicine Source Type: news

WHO: ‘Not Right’ to Vaccinate Young Before Old
GENEVA —The head of the World Health Organization says it’s “not right” that younger, healthier adults in rich countries get vaccinated against COVID-19 before older people in poorer countries. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus kicked off WHO’s week-long executive board meeting — virtually from its headquarters in Geneva — on Monday by lamenting that only 25 vaccine doses have been provided in a single poor country, while over 39 million doses have been administered in nearly 50 richer nations. “Just 25 doses have been given in one lowest income country — not 25 million, not 25...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - January 18, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: AP News Coronavirus International Medicine Source Type: news

Police: NY EMT Posed as Good Samaritan to Steal from Dying Landlord
Rocco Parascandola New York Daily News (MCT) An FDNY EMT who rushed to help his sick landlord get to the hospital then decided to help himself by entering the dying man’s vacant apartment to steal valuable electronics, jewelry and cash, police officers said Friday. Javier Rosario, 29, stole over $30,000 worth of property from his landlord’s Brooklyn home— not moments after he’d hurried to assist fellow EMTs as they bundled the distressed man into an ambulance to take him to a hospital, where he later died of natural causes. And while the EMT’s landlord was shuffling off his mortal coil, R...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - January 17, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: News News Feed EMT FDNY New York Police Source Type: news

Governors Complain Over Pace of COVID-19 Vaccine Shipments
By LAURAN NEERGAARD, RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR and DAVID CRARY Associated Press Governors bitterly accused the Trump administration Friday of deceiving the states about the amount of COVID-19 vaccine they can expect to receive as they ramp up vaccinations for senior citizens and others. But the government attributed the anger to confusion and misguided expectations on the part of the states. Meanwhile, the race between the vaccine and the virus may be about to heat up: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the new, more infectious variant first seen in Britain will probably become the dominant vers...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - January 16, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: AP News Coronavirus Source Type: news

NJ Teen EMS Volunteer Qualifies for COVID Dose, Can ’t Find Pfizer Vaccine
Teenage EMS volunteer qualifies for COVID vaccine, but finding Pfizer is nearly impossible https://t.co/azcJfuEpxO pic.twitter.com/Fqp6tq86oH— njdotcom (@njdotcom) January 15, 2021 Kevin Shea nj.com (MCT) Kelsey Quinones is about as frontline of a healthcare worker as you can get. She volunteers with the Cranford First Aid Squad, working 12-hour weekend shifts responding to emergencies and often taking patients to area hospitals. The work qualifies her to get the coronavirus vaccine, now, as an EMS member of Phase 1A. But Kelsey is 16 years old, and can only receive the Pfizer vaccin...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - January 15, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: Coronavirus News News Feed EMS Medicine New Jersey Source Type: news

Mental Health Calls Spike in the Pandemic in AL, Experts Say
Michael Wetzel The Decatur Daily, Ala. (MCT) Mental health calls have increased across the Valley, and the root cause is likely COVID-19, according to crisis centers and emergency personnel. “COVID-19 is on everyone’s mind and it is mentioned in many calls now,” said Connie Kane, clinical director at Crisis Services of North Alabama Inc. “We’re seeing an increase in calls because of isolation and loneliness, especially during the holidays, and COVID (played) a huge role this holiday season. Callers are expressing COVID fatigue. People are tired of wearing masks and b...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - January 15, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: AP News Communications & Dispatch Mental Health Source Type: news

Arrest Made in Shooting Death of AZ Medical Transport Driver
According to a report from KOLD, 18-year-old Kennon Grover was arrested by investigators for the deadly shooting of a Department of Veterans Affairs medical transport driver in April 2019. The transport driver, 59-year-old Delfino Picazo, was picking up a patient when Grover approached his vehicle demanding money. Grover then shot Picazo in the head. After the shooting, Grover fled to the Hopi Reservation until he thought it was safe to return to Phoenix. After the arrest was made, Grover told officers he felt bad about the shooting and that he had tossed the gun into a canal. Grover was booked at the county jail ...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - January 15, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: News Source Type: news

EMScapades: January 15, 2021
Previous EMScapades: January 1, 2021 The post EMScapades: January 15, 2021 appeared first on JEMS. (Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News)
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - January 15, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Ben Clincy, EMT-P Tags: Exclusives EMScapades Source Type: news

Expanded Vaccine Rollout in U.S. Spawns a New Set of Problems
By JANIE HAR, JENNIFER PELTZ and ALLEN G. BREED Associated Press The rapid expansion of COVID-19 vaccinations to senior citizens across the U.S. has led to bottlenecks, system crashes and hard feelings in many states because of overwhelming demand for the shots. Mississippi’s Health Department stopped taking new appointments the same day it began accepting them because of a “monumental surge” in requests. People had to wait hours to book vaccinations through a state website or a toll-free number Tuesday and Wednesday, and many were booted off the site because of technical problems and had to start over. ...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - January 15, 2021 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: AP News Coronavirus Medicine Source Type: news