EMS Agenda 2050: A Keynote Speaker ’s Report from Washington, DC
It was my great pleasure to be in Washington, DC, last week as a guest of the United States Department of Transportation (DOT)/National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). I was invited to attend—and be the keynote speaker during—the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Agenda 2050 National Implementation Forum. The forum was held in the DOT’s impressive 2.1 million square-foot headquarters complex within the historic Washington Navy Yard.
It often surprises people in and out of emergency services to learn that the DOT has a long history of leadership in the development andadvancement of EMS across the U.S. Th...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - September 25, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: William K. Atkinson, PhD, MPH, MPA, EMT-P Tags: News Exclusive Articles Administration and Leadership Source Type: news
New Spinal Motion Restriction Consensus Statement from ACS-COT, ACEP and NAEMSP
After three years of work and more than 30 drafts reviewed, the physician-led organizations in our profession have published a consensus guideline to help us move forward in our care of traumatized patients with potential spinal injury. Additional patient-centered organizations have added their support of the new evidence-driven guidance, which was recently published in Prehospital Emergency Care.
Many hours of back-and-forth review and compromise centered around the wording, which has resulted in a document that will help change our culture. As is often the case, strongly held beliefs and years of tradition in our educati...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - September 19, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Craig Manifold, DO Tags: Trauma Exclusive Articles News Source Type: news
It ’s Time to Train and Equip EMS Personnel to Respond to Active Threats
Over the past decade we’ve focused a great deal on attention to educating and equipping our law enforcement officers with individual first aid kits (IFAKs). We’ve not only equipped our officers with at least one commercially produced tourniquet and hemostatic dressings, but also trained them to manage severe extremity and junctional bleeding. Although much of the focus has been on law enforcement embracing the self-aid buddy aid (SABA) philosophy, many agencies have overlooked providing the same equipment and training to our EMS and fire department first responders.
One reason behind this oversight may be a flawed thou...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - September 19, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Mark E.A. Escott, MD, MPH, FACEP, NRP Tags: Training Columns Terrorism & Active Shooter Exclusive Articles Administration and Leadership Source Type: news
A Change of Heart: Perspectives on Patient Care and Technology
Bryon Moore has had a rich and varied career in EMS. He became an EMT in 1979 and received paramedic training at the fabled UCLA Daniel Freeman School for Paramedicine in 1982. He went on to be a paramedic in several systems before becoming the Northern California Clinical Coordinator for American Medical Response (AMR). Bryon then was attracted to helping develop and bring new resuscitation technology to market, working for a variety of medical device companies and launching new products globally. He’s currently VP of EMS Market Development for Defibtech, a company owned by Nihon Kohden, a leading medical device ma...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - September 19, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: EMS Insider Exclusive Articles Administration and Leadership Source Type: news
Psychological Trauma: The Silent Stalker
Conclusion
We must take steps to recognize psychological trauma among our partners and ourselves, establish a supportive culture of understanding and help seeking, and realize that we are ineffective in caring for others if we do not first help ourselves. Highly effective treatments are available.
References
Boffa JW, Stanley IH1, Hom MA. PTSD symptoms and suicidal thoughts and behaviors among firefighters. J Psychiatr Res. 2017;84:277–283.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (Sept. 4, 2014.) Substance use and mental health estimates from the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Overvi...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - September 17, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Chris G. Caulkins, MPH, MA, ABD Tags: Exclusive Articles Resiliency Operations Source Type: news
It ’s Not the Money that Keeps a Community Paramedicine Coordinator Awake at Night
How innovation spreads across an industry—especially when it comes to technology adoption—aligns along five phases: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards.1 The same is true of toys, cars and healthcare practices.
Mobile integrated healthcare/community paramedicine (MIH-CP) is arguably in an early majority stage now, having been a topic of fascination for years despite few successful long-term case studies. The discipline has a ways to go before it is mature but it’s no longer a novelty.
Indeed, EMS and fire agencies in more locales than ever have the authorization to engage in readmis...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - September 15, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Jonathon S. Feit, MBA, MA Tags: Columns Exclusive Articles Mobile Integrated Healthcare Source Type: news
Community Paramedic Pilot in Lexington, Kentucky, Resulting in Fewer EMS Calls
 
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - Lexington ambulance runs are down two percent since February of this year. Before that, the number of people needing ambulance rides were rising at a record pace.
In 2013, Lexington fire and EMS made 33,500 ambulance runs, and in 2017 they were up to 48,000 ambulance calls. Something needed to change.
There's a relatively new concept, at least for Kentucky called "community paramedicine." The idea is for paramedics to visit homes of patients who tend to use the ambulance service often to be taken to the emergency room.
Read more at WKYT. (Source: JEMS Special Topics)
Source: JEMS Special Topics - September 13, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Miranda Combs (WKYT) Tags: News News Videos Mobile Integrated Healthcare Source Type: news
The Power of Data to Affect Patient Outcomes
In my role as the EMS Coordinator for St. Elizabeth Healthcare in Northern Kentucky, I’m the interface between EMS agencies in the area and our hospitals. A big part of our mission is to be a community force that’s visible, transparent and achieves superior patient outcomes. But to do that, good data and processes were necessary.
For us, the journey really began in 2015, when we started researching the best ways to get access to prehospital data from our EMS agency partners and bring that data into the ED. We felt that closer collaboration with EMS would provide much better services for the patients in our commu...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - September 12, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Joshua Ishmael, MBA, EMT-P Tags: Exclusive Articles Operations Source Type: news
Albuquerque Fire Forms 'Home Engagement Alternative Response Team'
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) - Many may notice a new Albuquerque Fire Rescue unit driving around town.
In it, is a team of paramedics -- but they won't be responding to emergencies. Instead, they are making home visits.
While 911 is an emergency line, AFR says that's not always the case.
They say there are some patients in need of medical or social help who have a history of calling 911. Their new program called "HEART" is hoping to change that. (Source: JEMS Special Topics)
Source: JEMS Special Topics - September 12, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Sara Yingling (KRQE) Tags: News News Videos Mobile Integrated Healthcare Source Type: news
A Special Message from Randy Mantooth
(Source: JEMS Special Topics)
Source: JEMS Special Topics - September 11, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Slideshow Exclusive Articles Resiliency Source Type: news
Handling Drug Diversion in the Workplace
Doug Hooten, CEO of MedStar Mobile Healthcare in Fort Worth, Texas, and Matt Zavadsky, the Chief Strategic Integration Officer at MedStar gave a compelling presentation on drug diversion at the annual meeting of the American Ambulance Association (AAA) on Saturday, Sept. 8, 2018, at the MGM Grand Hotel Conference Center in Las Vegas.
They opened with a sobering point for administrators: if you don’t have a drug diversion/misuse issue in your agency, it’s only because you’re not looking for it.
Ensuring a safe environment for your employees (and your patients) should be the primary goal of any ambulance agency, and Ho...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - September 10, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: A.J. Heightman, MPA, EMT-P Tags: Exclusive Articles Administration and Leadership Source Type: news
Top 10 Documentation Mistakes Ambulance Providers Make – and Supervisors Overlook
Conclusions or Stating “Opinions”
You must document objectively, not subjectively, what you observe.
Use good charts/processes to keep you on track:
O.P.Q.R.S.T.
Onset
Provocation
Quality
Radiation
Severity
Time
D/R.A.A.T.T.
Dispatch
Response
Arrival
Assessment
Treatment
Transport
C.H.A.R.T.
C = Chief Complaint
H = History (Past & Present)
A = Assessment
R = Rx or Treatment
T = Transport and conditition enroute
Mistake #4: Internal Inconsistencies
There can't be inconsistencies in the narrative. For example, if you check off both “normal” and “amputation” on an anatomical chart, or describe it di...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - September 9, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: A.J. Heightman, MPA, EMT-P Tags: Exclusive Articles Documentation & Patient Care Reporting Source Type: news
An Update on EMS Medication Shortages
Medication shortages that affect EMS, although declining over the last eight years, have become persistent. The supply of staple drugs that are frequently used by EMS remains chronically unstable. Atropine, epinephrine, lidocaine, dextrose, fentanyl, diazepam and others reappear with frequency on the drug shortage lists around the country. Most recently, the national inventory of IV infusion bags of sodium chloride (i.e., normal saline solution) and dextrose 5%, have been affected.
There are several reasons we experience these shortages. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has researched the causes of drug...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - September 7, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Vincent D. Robbins, FACPE, FACHE Tags: Columns Exclusive Articles Administration and Leadership Operations Source Type: news
Unique Program Pairs Pets and Paramedics to Relieve Provider Stress
On Friday, August 31, the Richmond Ambulance Authority (RAA) and the Richmond Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) launched a new program called “Pets for Paramedics.” The program is designed to help EMS providers relieve stress through regular interaction with pets from the Richmond SPCA. The idea actually originated during a conversation with paramedic Danielle Geronimo on a ride-along.
“I have an affinity for pets. I love cats, love dogs—all animals,” said Geronimo. “I thought it would be great for both the animals and for the patients—and for us—if we could have a dog on an am...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - September 5, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Mark Tenia Tags: Exclusive Articles Resiliency Operations Source Type: news
ETI vs. SGA: The Verdict Is In
This study had several important limitations. The EMS agencies that participated in this trial have many years of experience in OHCA research, including additional training on CPR quality performance.
As previously noted, due to limitations in funding, we couldn’t assess the influence of CPR quality. We studied a relatively limited number of out-of-hospital and in-hospital adverse events. It also wasn’t possible to blind EMS providers to treatment assignment.
Although randomization was uneven in two sites, the overall characteristics of the study groups were similar. We observed a lower than expected ETI success rate; ...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - August 30, 2018 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Shannon W. Stephens, EMT-P Tags: Airway & Respiratory Exclusive Articles Source Type: news
