Have you ever wondered if what you are saying is being heard?  Have you ever thought “I’m just one person, who is going to notice what I have to say?  Who is going to notice what I’ve done?” Late last month, I received an Email from someone in a Government Office that has taken an interest in EMS, and where we are headed.  He was contacting me because he wanted to buy thirty EMS 2.0 Pins for the people in his office, and stated to me that “EMS 2.0 represents an opportunity to bring EMS into the 21st Century.”  Just when I didn’t think the conversation could get any better, he added that “we need to position EMS so that folks fully appreciate the contribution and vital role we serve in the daily delivery of health care services.” It just goes to the show that it’s the little things like a pin, or an idea that can help take a huge step towards fixing things.  It all starts with just one person, one thought, one concept.  When I came up with the design for the EMS 2.0 pin based on the ideas that I had read that Chris Kaiser and Justin Schorr shared with us all, I didn’t know if it would actually go anywhere.  Now a year later, I’ve sold almost 350 of them.  I’ve seen patches, tattoo ideas, and even a photo from the Philippians with that half-red, half-blue star of life. While there is so much more to EMS 2.0 than just the Pin, I’m proud to say that my design could be part of the idea.  Reading the excerpts from that email I shared with you above made it all worth it, all of the hand shaking, all the sharing of ideas, all the writing, and all the hard work.  Word has made it to the top, and there’s no telling where we can go from...

This Post can also be found at the First Few Moments website.  I will be doing some writing for Kyle David Bates and the rest of the FFM team, so those posts will be featured on both sites. While I have always been aware that ambulance accidents were occurring, my involvement with First Few Moments over the last eight months have really brought the issue into the spotlight for me.  It often feels like I can’t go a day or two without seeing yet another article about an ambulance crash, and they seem to be occurring more and more frequently. We’ve tackled this topic so many times on the show, and have come up with many different approaches to how reduce ambulance crashes.  We’ve talked about using simulators, the concept of sterile cockpits, increasing training time and frequency, and the effects of being overtired on drivers.  Above all of those though, there is one more topic I think we need to focus on more: Shut them off! I am of course, talking about our lights and sirens.  Why is there still such a desire to “run hot” to every call both to the scene and away from it?  How many actual complaints really warrant that lights and sirens response?  Priority Dispatch has done a good job of defining them, but in so many systems, we still insist on pushing the envelope and meeting what end up being unreasonable response times based on the staffing levels that most systems have. And what about transporting to the hospital with lights and sirens active?  What’s the point of all of our training if we are just going to treat each and every patient with a “diesel bolus?”  Very few patient dispositions are time sensitive.  I’d even go as far to argue that the only patients out there who would require “hot” transports to the hospital are those requiring emergency surgery, whether that be due to trauma or otherwise, those having a cerebrovascular accident, and those having an ST elevation MI.  The only other one that I would put a “maybe” on would be the failed airway, but that would depend on the degree and severity of the...

Welcome to the “reboot” of EMS in the New Decade.  Call it, EMS in the New Decade 2.0.  As you can see, the Blog has been moved to a new address, and has a completely new, different, updated look.  I hope you enjoy perusing it as much as I’ve enjoyed putting it together. I’m sure you’ll notice the new Picture Interface at the top of the page.  Here, you will find some of my most viewed, and most popular posts.  I will be rotating them every week or so, allowing you to get a good feel for everything that I write about.  Just because a post might slip down the list a bit due to it being written six months or a year ago, that doesn’t mean its any less relevant. Down on the lower left of the Home Page, you’ll be able to see each of my posts, newest at the top, as they get posted.  Notifications will still be going out on Twitter, and shortly, those notifications will be moving over to Facebook as well.  Get the word out, share, and feel free to comment on what you read. Finally, in the lower right hand part of the page, you’ll be able to see what I am chatting about on Twitter.  We get in some great discussions there, not only about EMS, but about life, and friendships, both from a serious and a not-so-serious standpoint. None of this would have been possible without Ted Setla and the entire team from the First Responders Network.  We had talked about the idea of a Blog Network back in Baltimore, and it seemed like I blinked, and the opportunity was here.  It’s an honor for me to be associated with this group of people.  They’re some great providers, and motivated advocates for EMS. This Blog has come a long way in the last thirteen months that I’ve been writing it.  Thanks to everyone who comes back and regularly reads what one Paramedic thinks about what is going on around him. Now, sit back, take a look around, and enjoy the new look of EMS in the New...

In less than a month, it will be time for the second annual EMS on the Hill Day, an event sponsored by NAEMT to help bring us together in a unified voice about issues and challenges we face everyday. I went down to Washington DC last year, but sadly due to my work schedule, I was unable to participate in the event itself. I was so excited by the turnout and the work that was done though that I decided to set aside the time to attend and participate this year. The event itself is on the 4th and 5th of May, and registration for the even closes on the 31st of March. To sign up and participate, head on over to the EMS on the Hill portion of the NAEMT Website. Then, come join me down in Washington DC for a chance to create a little Thunder, and make some positive changes in EMS. Hurry though! Registration closes on March...

Okay, so I know uttering the word “quiet” in EMS is like taboo. You just don’t do it. Don’t upset the peace, don’t disturb the EMS Gods when they’re sleeping. Thankfully, I’m not on a truck right now. I’m no where even near work! I just wanted to briefly share with you all why things have slowed down a bit here at EMS in the New Decade over the last week or two. There are big things coming in the next couple of weeks to my blog. I don’t want to “officially” announce it until everything is in place. Domains need to be setup, pages need to be laid out, and then I’ll be ready to say more. That’s right, EMS in the New Decade is moving up in the world! Couple that with a short vacation next week to Florida to visit my parents who are amateur snow birds this year, and you’ve got the makings of a little time away from the Blogging World. Rest assured though, everything is well. Actually, everything is better than...

Technology is progressing around us and EMS is no exception. Last week at EMS Today in Baltimore, MD, I had a chance to spend a decent amount of time on the exhibit hall floor. Everywhere I turned I saw laptops, tablets, and new software that can track and quantify almost every aspect of the job. As manufacturers of Cardiac Monitors and AED’s, Phillips, Zoll and Physio Control have to each try and be on the cutting edge just to compete with one another. I took a walk through each of their respective booths at EMS Today, and had a couple of products catch my eye. 1. Phillips — On the second day that we were there, Chris Kaiser from Life Under the Lights told me I “had to go check out Phillips’ new monitor.” I went over to their booth and found their MP2 model. It is an incredibly sleek, compact and portable monitor that I can see a number of uses for, but as Chris pointed out, it certainly has its limitations. Mainly, the monitor itself has no way to print out or transmit an EKG. While it would be great at simply monitoring a patient or doing a quick assessment (at… say… a special event or by a first responding bike team) transferring the information to another caretaker might prove difficult. With time and a little bit of polishing (and maybe some feedback from a paramedic or two) I think Phillips will have a great piece of equipment on their hands with an extremely practical pre-hospital use. 2. Zoll — I spent a lot of time at the Zoll booth this year. I don’t have a ton of experience with their products, but boy what a company. I think one of the things that continues to impress me about them is how receptive they are to the pre-hospital provider. They’re extremely supportive of us, and their products show it. This year at EMS Today, they helped unveil the new iPCR, a revolutionary new take on computerized charting. It was only a matter of time before someone took the Tablet PC concept to the iPAD, and while the new device can run many...

I had another post written that was going to go up this morning, but I decided to push it back a day. This story is too good to pass up. . . If you haven’t heard the tale yet of TOTWTYTR and the Ambulance Driver’s CPR save in Edison New Jersey, you need to. Blogger Save So much can be said about this call. The thing that stands out to me more than anything is after saving a life, these two EMS Veterans returned to their table to finish their breakfast. They didn’t wait for recognition. They didn’t demand the ticker tape parade that they deserved. They just washed their hands and moved on. I chuckle at that, actually. Its a true testament to the lives many of us in EMS lead. Its 90% ordinary, 10% action, and when the action is over, life just returns to normal. They might just say they were in the right place at the right time. . . I say they are heroes. Way to go...

My name is Scott, and I suffer from PCDS. What is PCDS? The abbreviation stands for Post Conference Depression Syndrome. Many of us realized this disorder was going to plague us in the last hours of EMS Expo in Dallas, and as we said goodbye in Baltimore, it was clear that I was going to have to battle with it again. Okay, enough of the drama. What a great week! The four days flew by, and there was so much to see, hear and learn about. Here are some of my conference highlights: 1. The EMS 10 Awards — I wrote about them briefly in my EMS Today Eve post from Thursday morning. What a great way to start of the week: attend a dinner that honors some great EMS innovators. As I mentioned previously, it was great to see two members of our own EMS Podcasting and Blogging community walking away with awards that night. Congratulations to Greg Friese, Chris Montera, and all of the other winners, and thank you Erik Denny for including my in the festivities. 2. Firestorm — I ran into Julie Winokur, the Director, Producer and Editor of Firestorm, a great movie about ER overcrowding and the misuse of the Emergency Medical System in general in the City of Los Angeles. I was able to attend the Three-City Premiere last May in Philadelphia, and wrote a review of it on the blog as well. It turned out that Talking Eyes Media was putting on another showing of it, this time on the Exhibit Floor at EMS Today. I was excited to see that the showing resulted in a standing room only crowd. If you haven’t seen Firestorm yet, I urge you to do so. It’s a great “no punches pulled” look at the struggles not only faced by the EMS community, but by modern Health Care. 3. Culture Shock: Transforming the Culture of an Organization – There were a lot of people that I wanted to see, and a lot of things to do in a short time, so I wasn’t able to make as many sessions as I would have liked. This was one that I made it...

Well, night number 1 is in the books, and it wasn’t really a night, it was more of a full day. I was up early today, and on the road at 8am.I picked up my copilot, Patrick, and we were on our way toBaltimore.It was bitter sweet, it was the first time I traveled without a certain special someone, but she’s moved on from my life, and I’m doing the same. Five and a half hours later, we were in Baltimoreand checked into the Days Inn down at the InnerHarbor.We met up with a few Twitter friends for a late lunch, and then it was back to the Hotel to get dressed and ready for the EMS 10 Awards dinner at the M & T Bank Stadium. The EMS 10 Awards was created to recognize ten innovative EMS professionals whose “efforts are an inspiration and a challenge to the rest of theEMScommunity.”I was invited to the dinner as a representative of the Blogging and Social Media community.The more I thought about this, the more I was humbled that I was thought of as someone who was influential enough to be a guest at such an event.I haven’t been at this blogging thing very long, and it makes me happy to know that people are taking notice and enjoying what they read. This was an excellent way to start off the night.Physio Control put on a great event.The accomplishments of those selected for the awards were inspiring, and as RJ Stine commented, “who knows?Any one of us could be up there in the coming years.”A special congratulation goes out to two members of our Social Media community: Greg Friese and Chris Montera who were award recipients this year.We are making waves, and people starting to sit up and listen! From there, we headed over to the Pratt St Ale House for the Zoll sponsored Meetup to kickoff EMS Today. If you’ve been watching the Twitter Feed at all over the last week or so, chances are you saw the #PrattStTweetup hashtag scroll by. The turn out was great.It was tough to get a true head count, but we took over the entire second floor of...

When I sit down to craft a blog entry, I try not to focus on “Me.”I’d rather focus on “Us.” That being said, there comes those occasional times when my inner narcissist takes over.This is one of those times. In May of last year, I made some tough and important decisions about the life I was going to lead.I was overweight, and not leading a healthy life style.It was time for me to change all of that and get myself into a better place physically, mentally and emotionally. I’ve always been what I refer to as a “stress eater.”Food makes me feel better.It has always been therapeutic for me.Let’s face it, we work in a stressful field, and the position I hold has been extremely stressful over the last couple of years, so reaching for an extra helping at dinner, or hitting a McDonald’s drive thru was an easy thing for me to do. I realized that I couldn’t do that anymore.I needed to find better ways to cope, and it was time to start taking better care of myself.I started concentrating on eating better, and downloaded an Application on my iPhone called “Lose It!” and on May 14th of last year, I began recording everything that I ate, and any exercise I did.I’ve continued that religiously each and every day since then.Now, 40 weeks later, I’ve reached my goal. When I started my transformation, I weighed 310 lbs.When I stepped on a scale this past Monday, I was delighted to see that I was down to 235.That’s right, I lost 75 lbs.I haven’t weighed under 240 lbs in at least five or six years.I feel great, I look like a different person, and I fit into clothes that I haven’t worn in years.I’m not completely satisfied yet, but losing 75 lbs is quite a huge step forward, and anything from here on out will be a cake walk (mmmm cake). To those of you who have known about my endeavors, I thank you for your support.For anyone who is looking to do something similar, check out Lose It!It’s a great application, and it changed my...