For the last week or so, a battle has been going on in the City of Tulsa, Oklahoma as the Emergency Medical Services Authority, or EMSA, has been fighting to retain control over the EMS system in the city.  The Tulsa Fire Department felt that they could do a better job than the 33 years of experience and proven effectiveness that the public trust has provided.  Monday, the Mayor of Tulsa Dewey Bartlett made the right choice and decided to stick with EMSA. The Tulsa Fire Department argued that if given control over the EMS system, they could not only save the city money, but also generate more revenue by eliminating redundancies in the chain of command, redundancies that exist because the business of running an ambulance service is different from running a fire department which by definition are not redundancies at all.  EMS is a complicated business and is becoming more complicated by the day.  New treatments pop up all of the time, and opportunities arise for services as efficient as EMSA to participate in ground breaking studies that could change pre hospital treatment on a national scale.  Ventures such as these require a leadership team that can focus 100% of their attention on the department itself. I call this a “win” for EMS not only because I feel that EMSA is a solid, proven service but also because Tulsa did not go the route that Kansas City did by eliminating MAST last year.  MAST, like EMSA, was a proven, nationally recognized service which has fallen into a state of mediocrity, longer response times, and some bizarre patient care cases since it was taken over by the Kansas City Fire Department. Â  In fact, after promises of improved response times, Kansas City Fire Chief Smokey Dyer was quoted as saying that “it’s not possible” to meet the system’s mandated response times with the staff he currently has. It is nice to see Tulsa go the route that Kansas City should have.  Now is not the time or atmosphere at this juncture in pre-hospital care for a department to just “jump into it.”  Although public perception might say that faster response times are the golden...

Its Monday, and it is the start of yet another week.  I have got lots on my plate, but thankfully I am off work until Friday. This week will be spent making preparations for my latest EMS related journey: EMS Expo in Las Vegas.  The countdown seemed to start on the last day of EMS Today, and although I could sit here and tell you that it felt like it has been ages, the last six months has flown by. It is hard for me to believe that just about a year ago I was making the same preparations to hop on a plane and make my first major conference appearance in Dallas at last year’s EMS Expo, but it is true.  That trip was a completely different ball game though: I had only met a few people from the social media community face to face and I was going to meet a heck of a lot more.  Podcasting was new to me, I had only been doing it for a little more than a month.  Also, I really did not know what to expect from the whole experience, I mean, I expected that I was going to have a good time, but I did not expect Dallas to be as amazing as it was. Now, a year later, I am ready for the vacation of my life.  I’ve been asked by a number of people that I work with if I was going to Vegas for business or for pleasure?  I tell them a little bit of both, and some of them cannot fathom how so much fun can be had at a conference, and I have to try to explain it to them.  Some get it, and some don’t.  Yes, EMS Expo is an industry related convention; yes, I am going to be doing some balance of working and learning while I am there.  What they do not really grasp is the concept of this amazing group of friends that I have made in this short journey.  The best part of Expo is I will get to spend almost every waking moment with them.  Sure, it comes at a price: when we...

Many first responders risked their lives and some lost them on the day of September 11, 2001, but that does not appear to matter anymore.  In a recent article at Firehouse.com it was reported that emergency responders would not be included in this year’s 10th anniversary remembrance ceremony.  A city official cited space issues as the reason. While many fled from the scene at ground zero that day, the emergency workers from the FDNY, NYPD, the Port Authority, and other private and non-profit services ran into the fray with the intention of helping with little regard for their own safety.  While many of us are asked to potentially put our lives on the line every day, there has not been an incident of this magnitude on US soil since Pearl Harbor, and no loss of life of emergency responders has ever been seen before. In the days that followed, search efforts were on going.  People worked 24, 36, 48 hour shifts in search of not only of their friends and coworkers but also complete strangers who were counting on them Some responders from 9/11 are still “giving” to this day.  Many suffered great psychological trauma that still effects them 10 years later, and I don’t blame them.  An incident like that will change a person forever.  These sacrifices are often forgotten and need to be recognized and remembered.  If it was not for them the loss of life that day could have been even more significant. It is a travesty that these individuals, no, these heroes are not being recognized at Ground Zero as part of the ceremony.  The emergency responders on the front lines that day have consistently gotten the short end of the stick from the government, and this was a great chance for them to take a step towards making it up to them, but once again they have let not only me down, but also the more than ninety thousand emergency personnel who responded on 9/11 and the days after it. I urge every politician who is attending that day to give up their seat to allow a firefighter, an EMT, a paramedic or a police officer to attend.  That...

As I stated in a previous post, I was recently named the State Advocacy Coordinator for Massachusetts by the National Association of EMTs.  After my experiences in Washington, DC at EMS on the Hill Day I felt that I would be a good fit for the position and I am really excited about it.  Helping push the progression of EMS at a national level and being able to lobby for issues important to EMTs everywhere is a great honor, and quite the responsibility. I am not alone in my undertaking of this venture.  There are twenty other individuals from around the country who have also been named as their state advocated.  Among them are a few names that might be familiar.  If you look over the list of advocates broken down by state, you will notice that the State of Louisiana is being represented by Natalie Quebodeaux, better known in the internet community as Ms. Paramedic.  A few lines down, right above Massachusetts you will see that my friend William Random Ward, a fellow FRN Blogger is representing Maryland.  Even further down, the name Jon Blatman is listed as the representative for Pennsylvania.  Jon is known on Twitter as JonEMTP and is a fellow EMS 2.0 supporter. Four of us out of twenty, one out of every five state representatives is involved in some way in Social Media and EMS 2.0.  That is a pretty good percentage, and a pretty great start.  What is alarming though is that thirty states and the District of Columbia remain unrepresented.  NAEMT is still taking applications, and I’m throwing out a challenge to all of my readers: get out there and help us make a difference! Have you ever thought about the importance of lobbying, and what these state advocacy coordinator positions could give to us?  EMS is lacking a unified voice.  We have no way to get our message out there as one collective group.  On that day in early May, I got to see how effective working together can really be.  Almost one hundred and fifty individuals meeting with their states representatives to advocate for change.  The three topics were noble ones: an increase in Medicare...

Sometimes a person needs to be able to say “enough is enough.” In my years in EMS, I have seen a number of people come and go. Â  The wear and tear of being a field provider ends up being too much for some bodies both young and old, some decide to move on to other careers (nursing, physician’s assistant, fire fighter, police officer etc) and even more still are overcome by burnout. We all know those people that I am talking about: the ones that just can’t seem to have a good day; the ones that are crispier than burnt bacon.  They act like their motivating factor for continuing to work is that leaving would be admitting defeat to a job, an organization or even an individual person like a boss or a supervisor.  Some may think that the only casualty suffered in this scenario is the person themselves, but these crispy individuals usually cause a lot of collateral damage.  I’ve seen good EMT’s dragged down by cynical, burnt out partners, becoming a clone of the person they sit next to for forty hours a week and that makes me sad.  People should be allowed to enjoy their job, and do it at their own terms, but exposure to people like this make that difficult. Then, there are the patients.  How can a person give their best at a job when they are miserable day in and day out?  It does not seem possible to me.  Our job is a very serious, vital one, and the people we encounter every day deserve nothing short of a caring, competent, compassionate individual coming to their aide.  When a provider starts putting their patients second, third, or even forth, or worrying more about how their employer is “screwing them” or this particular 9-1-1 call is going to make them late for this or that, it stops being about the patients, and when it stops being about the patients, it is time to question one’s motivations and desire to stay in the field. Don’t get me wrong, everyone has a bad day.  The problem arises when that bad day turns into a bad week, or that bad week...