At EMS Today I had a great opportunity to cohost with my friend Dave Aber on his podcast: EMS Classroom Conundrums.  In this episode we brought on Bob Moore and Bob Hopkins who were two of my instructors during my days at Springfield College.  It was an honor to be involved with this show, and great to talk to Bob and Hoppy about where education has been, where it is, and where it is going.  Check out the video...

I had someone very close to me point out that sometimes I have the ability to get rather negative, as of late, about where I came from.  Looking back at some posts and some Tweets, I couldn’t help but see what she was talking about.  I don’t know exactly why that manifests itself.  Some of it is frustration, some of it is my own pride.  While 2012 posed a lot of crossroads for me that led to my inevitable departure from Springfield, I count my blessings every day for the experiences I had and the friends that I made in my twelve years working there. I learned many lessons from many, many different people: patients, doctors, professors, EMTs that I worked with, supervisors who both supervised me and supervised with me, paramedics who reported to me. . . the list goes on and on.  I had a long way to go to be good at my job when I started in Springfield and without those experiences, without those calls that I did both with good and bad outcomes I would not be the person or the paramedic that I am today. I left for a number of reasons, the culmination of it all contributing to the fact that I was not happy.  Part of it was issues with the local direction of my company, part of it was the major changes happening way above my head that I had absolutely no control over.  I wanted and needed a change, and that is exactly what I got.  None of that took away from the fact that I had some amazing supervisors that I got to work with, and two hundred plus EMT’s and paramedics who I was proud to work in the street with. Now that I am almost four months out from my departure, I just wanted to once again share that with everyone.  I have written a lot in the last month about the team at AMR Springfield because I believe in them and I believe that no one could do a better job for the people in Springfield.  I believe in the EMTs, the paramedics, the dispatchers, and the team that leads...

Tuesday afternoon at 3:30pm, there will be a meeting held at Springfield City Hall to discuss American Medical Response and their ability to provide prehospital care to the citizens of Springfield.  Below is something I would like to share with the City Councilors who will be in attendance Tuesday. City Councilors of Springfield, Despite the favorable findings of WGGB in their investigation on emergency response, you have decided to hold a forum to discuss potential short comings of the current EMS provider to the City of Springfield.  Yes, that is right, I said it was favorable.  Although the ebb and flow of the story might not have showed it, all of the information provided shows that AMR exceeds the expectations set for it.  But maybe you should dig a little deeper.  Prior to walking in the door to Tuesday’s meeting, I would like to urge you to do a little research and maybe expand your vocabulary a bit. For instance, for just a second, let’s forget about response times.  They don’t nearly matter as much as you might think.  Try researching what a ROSC rate is, or how CPAP has reduced the mortality of shortness of breath patients, particularly in Springfield.  Ask Baystate Medical Center about the success of their ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction program (STEMI for short) and ask them how many of those patients are delivered by AMR. Still not convinced?  Why not take a good hard look at other communities around the country and see for yourself how good you have it in Springfield.  An ambulance is on scene in a preset amount of time or less 97% of the time.  How do you think that compares to communities like Detroit, Washington DC, or Philadelphia just to name a few? Or how about closer to home?  Ask around to some of the neighboring more rural communities and see what their response times are like.  I guarantee that some will be longer than the average time publicized by AMR in WGGB’s article, but the patient outcomes will still be favorable. Just like with in-hospital medicine, perfection will never be obtained in prehospital medicine.  Errors are going to happen because not only are the...

Recently, I was checking out some EMS related blogs while enjoying my morning coffee when I came upon a post at Captain Chair Confessions called “I don’t like to take riders.”  In the post CCC talks about the fact that he feels that passengers are a “distraction” to him in the pack and to his partner who would be driving. In a comment that follows, he outlines that his service has a policy that states only a parent of a child under ten can ride in back and all others go up front.  Beyond family members his service has a policy that all other riders are taken “at the crew’s discretion.”  This sounds very familiar to the policy that was in place at my previous employer. I was fortunate that through my seven years as a supervisor I did not field all that many complaints about my team working in the field.  Sure, you would get the occasional nursing home RN who felt that an EMT was rude to them, or someone who complained about being cut off by a speeding ambulance, but beyond that, I took about a dozen calls from people who wanted to go to the hospital with their loved one, and were denied by the ambulance crew. When I approached the crews and asked them what happened, most of them were able to give me a valid reason why they would not allow someone else to come to the hospital with them but there were a few crews that stated “well, it’s up to our discretion.”  And when I asked them what they meant by that, they replied “we don’t take riders.”  I explained to each of those people that this was not discretion.  I would stress them that each individual situation needed to be evaluated and we needed to do what was in the patient’s best interest, and sometimes not having to sit in the hospital alone is in their best interest. I would always do the best I could to back my crews 100% on situations like this if they gave me the ammo to do so.  Calls that involved violence from assault right up to a stabbing...

The WGGB story that I wrote about last week and some recent discussions with a few friends have gotten me thinking about the common media response that EMS services seem to have.  While there are some services out there that are leading the way and showing us what we need to do when it comes to public relations and the utilization of a public information officer, more times than not the attitude is taken that “no news it good news.”  That could not be farther from the truth.  No news means that you, as a community partner, are not doing your job. Not a month goes by that there is not some news story that an EMS service could add their input to.  For example, did you know that February was Heart Awareness Month?  What a great opportunity for paramedics and their leaders to talk about what a person should do when they start having chest pain at home. Another great two prong approach is to share the accomplishments and milestones of your service and your personnel with the community.  Do you have someone who has been working for the service for 25 years?  Write a press release about it, and invite the local paper to come interview them.  Have you gotten a new cutting edge piece of equipment or a new state of the art ambulance?  Invite a TV station over for a tour a demonstration.  Not only does the community get to see what you are up to, but you get to build a positive relationship with the press, and your people know that you are proud of them and want them to be in the spotlight. With so many media opportunities out there, everyone has a chance to talk about whatever they want.  Look at what I am doing right now.  I am blogging, and people are reading it and while not every entry into the media world whether it is social or traditional requires a response, an EMS service needs to be ready to say something besides “no comment.” If people do not know what happens when they call 9-1-1, that is the service’s fault, not the public.  They should...

Have you made the trip to Washington, DC this year for the annual EMS Today hosted by JEMS?  If so, you should come by the JEMS booth on Friday and say hi. Friday morning, and into the early afternoon, I will be there participating in a few podcasts starting at 10am.  The podcast studio will be open and active all day on Friday and Saturday, complete with the social media lounge.  Stop by, say hi, and take in some great...

Another year has gone by, and it is time for the third annual EMS on the Hill Day!  Unfortunately, I am not going to be participating this year, but that does not diminish the need to stress the importance of advocacy not just this week, but year round. There are decisions that need to be made that are not made by EMTs, paramedics, or their services’ leadership.  They are championed, led, and voted on by senators and congressmen who act largely on their gut, and information given to them by their staff.  It is our responsibility as a community to make sure that they are getting the right information.  While year-round advocacy is vital, EMS on the Hill Day gives us a chance to take Capitol Hill by storm and share with them in one unified voice to talk to our representatives and lawmakers about issues that are important to us and our future. Take a look at this video from NAEMT about last year’s EMS on the Hill Day.  And yes, that’s...

Shortly after my post went up yesterday regarding WGGB Springfield’s story about AMR’s response time in the City of Springfield I received an email from reporter Brendan Monahan who did the story asking me if I wanted to talk about my concerns with the way WGGB depicted emergency response in Springfield, MA. Even before the story was aired Wednesday night on ABC 40, it had generated quite a buzz mostly on Facebook.  WGGB’s website received close to 400 comments and private messages in response to an inquiry looking for anyone who had waited more than 10 minutes for an ambulance to arrive after calling 9-1-1.  Some of those comments and messages were productive and informative others not so much, but such is the world of social media today. I had a very productive talk with Brendan lasting about 30 minutes.  The first thing that he wanted to point out was that his intention for this story was in no way to attack or offend any paramedics, EMTs, or anyone else affiliated with the industry.  His intention was to generate discussion about whether or not AMR should add ambulances to the upcoming contract, or if the city should consider making some changes.  He felt that he and the team at WGGB were presenting fact based information utilizing data that they had been given by the City of Springfield, and interviews with some officials with the city.  He acknowledged that the information I highlighted as what I felt to be most important in my response to his story was featured in Wednesday night’s segment, however it might not have been as prominent as I wanted it to be.  He stated, and I agree that as the reporter putting the story together, the structure of that story is his to determine. I shared with Brendan my feelings about the quality of response in Springfield as compared to other municipalities in the greater Springfield area as well as nationwide.  I tried to stress to Brendan that while 97% is not perfect, it not only exceeds Springfield’s standards, but it is also much better than some of the largest cities in the country, and if put up against other...