Jul 14, 2014

It goes without saying that many medical professionals (not just prehospital providers) really do not understand HIPAA and how it affects their job.  More importantly, many do not realize how it actually does not affect their job.  For this week’s episode, Scott steals Natalie Cavender again on her ride home to talk about HIPAA from her point of view. To download this week’s podcast, click this link!  Otherwise, use the player...

CPR is increasingly becoming a requirement for high school graduation throughout the country, and personally I could not be happier.  I love seeing news stories about this topic. When we are dispatched to a cardiac arrest in our system, one of the first questions I ask myself is “is anyone doing CPR?”  I usually find that compressions are being done in about one out of every three “workable” cardiac arrests.  More times than not, the thing most often preventing CPR being done is the fact that the caller has difficulty getting the patient from where they are to the floor. The second most frequent one is that the caller is too scared or just unwilling or unable to do it because they are too hysterical.  I completely understand this.  EMS professionals walk into these situations with training and the expectation that they will be there to bring order to the chaos.  It is what we do.  It is part of who we are and what our profession is all about.  One cannot have that same expectation of the general public. Should a bystander be willing to do CPR, and they are untrained, they will get a crash course on the phone of how to do hands only CPR in the form of prearrival instructions from an Emergency Medical Dispatch certified person on the other end of the phone.  It is virtually impossible to make sure that the person on the other end of the phone is following the instructions as they should.  Of those one third that get compressions, probably half of them are done well.  The plus side though is something is better than nothing when it comes to cardiac arrest care. Here we sit in 2014 with a generation of people (that arguably I am on the older side of being part of) who are consumed by their cell phones.  People live in their phones, and use them to make potential medical emergencies someone else’s problem.  Gone are the days of people moving away from these sorts of things.  They call, and then they stand around to see what happens.  Rarely do people get involved and try to help.  We need to...

How many paramedics should be on an amulance?  Truth is, we really do not know.  With operational concerns, skill dilution, and burnout as chief concerns, Sean Eddy, Russell Stine, and host Scott Kier share their opinions on the topic. Check out Sean’s blog post that started the conversation over at MedicMadness.com To download this week’s podcast, click this link!  Otherwise, use the player...

Jul 2, 2014

Over the past fourteen years or so I have owned a lot of different brands of boots: Magnum, Rocky, and 5.11 to name a few, and even a pair of boots I found at Walmart called Brahmas that I used as a spare set for a winter or two.  A couple of months ago though, I found what might be the worst pair of boots that I have encountered. One of the benefits of my new job is I am issued just about every piece of my uniform that I wear.  We get shirts, pants, a belt, jackets, and even boots.  It is very unusual coming from the private sector where I had previously received just shirts and was left to fend for myself for most of the rest of my uniform.  My 5.11’s that I was issued when I got hired were about a year and a half old and were starting to look a little sad.  Admittedly, I don’t take as good care of my boots as I probably should but in the past, if I had gotten a year out of a pair of boots I was pretty happy with them. As a replacement for my boots, I received a pair from a brand called HAIX, which apparently is a German company.  Full disclosure, I only wore these boots for about ten days before going back to my 5.11’s but the experience that I had was less than satisfactory.  Here is what I thought of their Airpower R1 model. Fit:  Although I had been fitted by a “specialist” who sized me once at our headquarters, these were by far the most uncomfortable boot that I had ever put on.  It was not a width issue or anything like that, the pain that I experienced was actually in my heels which ran up the back of my calves.  At the end of the day, my feet flat out hurt.  I could not wait to take these boots off. Functionality: The zipper down the center of the boot is an interesting feature.  I found, however, that you pretty much needed an engineering degree to tighten the laces on the boot.  They run laterally...

It is time for me to take a few days off.  I am heading to New Jersey for the weekend to enjoy the annual fire department brewfest/fund raiser in Island Heights where I grew up.  There will be no podcast on Monday, but posts will start up again next Wednesday. Enjoy your weekend, stay safe if you are working and I will see you in July!