Economic Challenges for EMS
Is the economy having an adverse affect on emergency medical service crews? Thom Dick, columnist at EMS Magazine and quality care coordinator at Platte Valley Ambulance in Brighton, CO, talks about the challenges EMS crews are facing due to budget cutbacks as part of The Brian Lehrer Show’s Uncommon Economic Indicators series.
Safety Week for EMS: Helicopter Operations
Helicopter Operations
Gary Ludwig
As part of the “2009 Fire/EMS Safety, Health and Survival Week,” Chief Gary Ludwig discusses his top safety concerns and advice for EMS responders. During this episode he talks about the currently high risks associated with the air medical industry and shares some advice for safe operations.
Gary Ludwig is a nationally recognized fire and EMS expert whose works include regular columns for Firehouse Magazine and Firehouse.com, and whose previous publications include EMS Magazine. He currently serves as a deputy fire chief for the Memphis, Tennessee Fire Department. He retired as Chief Paramedic from the St. Louis Fire Department in 2001 after 25 years of employment with the city. Chief Ludwig also currently serves as Chairman for the EMS Section of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, sponsor of Safety Week. Learn more about him at www.garyludwig.com.
Continuing Education Podcast: Advances in ACLS and CPR
Continuing Education Podcast: Advances in ACLS and CPR
Keith Wesley, MD
For the first time in EMS education, we bring you a podcast lecture available for continuing education credit. This lesson by national EMS educator Keith Wesley, MD, adapted from his EMS Expo presentation, covers the following topics in ACLS and CPR:
1. Review of History of CPR
2. Changes to 2005 Guidelines
3. Physiology of CPR
4. Efficiency of automated versus manual CPR;
• Patient centric issues: improved outcomes
• Crew centric issues: safer transports, manpower issues
5. Where do we go from here?
Dr. Keith Wesley is a board certified emergency medicine physician living in Eau Claire Wisconsin. He is the former Wisconsin State EMS Medical Director and currently serves as the Minnesota State Medical Director; Chair of the National Council of State Medical Directors; and medical director for HealthEast Medical Transport in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is a prolific EMS author and lecturer as well as contributor to e-learning producer Emergency Preparedness Systems, LLC.
After listening, look for the quiz to be featured at www.rapidce.com to earn .5 CE hours.
EMSC Day – the History and Future
EMSC Day - the History and Future
Bob Waddell
Robert K. Waddell, II, discusses how his fear of caring for kids inspired him to go into pediatric prehospital care education and training. After the EMSC program recruited his involvement in 1998, he worked with them, additional associations and the government to create EMSC Day, which became official in 2000.
“Organizations, institutions, communities, regions and even states are recognizing that the care of children had been a neglected area for many years,” Waddell says, and “there’s still plenty of work to do to increase it …and it does help the overall foundation of EMS week, of making sure make sure we don’t have any population left behind in our care.”
Resources:
EMS for Children Day 2009
EMS for Children Day 2009
Melanie Jarreau, EMSC
Melanie Jarreau, Chair of the Louisiana Governor’s Advisory Council for EMSC, shares the story of her daughter, whose death as an infant inspired her to lobby for improvements in emergency pediatric care in Louisiana, contributing to the passage of a Louisiana Emergency Response Network to address time-sensitive injuries.
As EMS for Children Day approaches as part of this EMS Week, Jarreau appeals to responders to always remain fully trained and fully equipped for pediatric emergencies. “Those skills and those resources get a little rusty sometimes…. Make sure you have your refreshers and you feel confident and make sure you have the proper equipment and abilities to handle a child when that call comes in.”
Resources:
Stimulus Funding Explained
Stimulus Funding Explained
Domingo Herraiz, Motorola
Among the many sources of government grant money, more than $2.5 billion in funding is now available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), also known as the U.S. stimulus package. In this May 14, 2009 podcast, grant expert Domingo Herraiz provides a walk-through on how to locate and take advantage of these resources.
Herraiz, formerly a Department of Justice (DOJ) funding and policy expert, now directs Motorola’s Government and Enterprise Funding Programs
Herraiz has more than 23 years of government and public safety experience in dealing with local, state and federal policies. Most recently, he served as the U.S. Senate-confirmed director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), leading the DOJ’s largest funding and policy unit for state, local and tribal criminal justice issues. Prior to his role as director of the BJA, Herraiz served as the deputy director of the BJA and director of Criminal Justice Services for the state of Ohio.
Among the resources discussed is Motorola’s recently launched site, Motorola - American Recovery Act (ARRA), which provides webinars, guides, and further information about available grants and funding.
For additional resources discussed in this podcast, visit http://grants.gov and www.recovery.gov.
Additional grant features and resources are located at www.emsresponder.com/grants.
ACEP on EMS Week 2009
ACEP on EMS Week 2009
Marshall Gardner
EMSResponder.com connects with ACEP to discuss this year’s EMS Week, which runs May 17-23, as well as other ACEP current news. ACEP sponsors the annual National Emergency Medical Services Week to bring communities and providers together, to publicize safety and to honor those on medicine’s “front line.” ACEP’s Marshall Gardner provides a brief history of EMS Week, what the program has evolved into today, and why agencies should be involved.
To learn more about the program, download materials or contact ACEP about your EMS Week activities, visit www.emsweek.org. For more related content visit EMSResponder.com’s EMS Week Resource Guide at www.emsresponder.com/resources. (After May 2009 find it at www.emsresponder.com/resources/archives/.)
Open Airways: Stories from the back of the ambulance
How Far We’ve Come
Cynthia Osborne
“…We had no idea, within our training at the time, we did not know what we had done … What I decided at that point is nobody will ever go out in the street with as little as I knew.” Click to hear some fascinating stories from Cynthia Osborne as she tells of her journey to become a female medic in the early days of EMS in Chicago, and recounts the changes she has seen since.
Open Airways is a project to capture an oral history for the benefit of the EMS Community. EMS responders share some of the most meaningful cases of their careers, sometimes with humor and always with compassion. We hope that they will help us improve your practice and inspire a new generation of caregivers.
This series is produced by FISDAP with the support of EMSResponder.com. Listen to the latest features here and look for the series archive at openairways.net.
To share your most meaningful case and the lesson it taught you, call FISDAP Open Airways at 1.651.314.7424
EMS Magazine Monthly Preview: March ‘08
Get the rundown on the latest features in EMS Magazine from Editor Nancy Perry. This month’s topics include best practices being implemented around the country to solve EMS recruitment and retention issues, as well as cardiac care. Listen to find out more.
Primal Quest Dispatch #7: Race Reflections
By Greg Friese, MS, NREMT-P, WEMT, Emergency Preparedness Systems, LLC
EMSResponder.com Contributor
In his last podcast on serving as a medical volunteer at the Primal Quest Adventure Race, Greg Friese reflects on the experience and what he can take from it into EMS at home.
In this series wrap-up, Greg shares an update on the athlete who was rescued and hospitalized after suffering severe heatstroke, and he describes the importance of the combined response by the patient’s fellow and opposing racers, event medical staff, and hospital staff.
Greg also shares highlights about the teams’ accomplishments and his interactions with them, and EMS lessons in the power of compassion, reassurance and humor. Greg wraps up this final report by describing how the experience was a beneficial and uplifting change of pace, and shares suggestions to help other care providers explore ways to apply their skills in unique settings.
This concludes Greg Friese’s podcast series on his experience at Primal Quest. Watch for his related feature, “An EMS Adventure: Providing Medical Care for the Primal Quest Adventure Race,” in the September issue of EMS Magazine.