Just before the New Year, someone dropped off a huge bag full of Beanie Babies at our office. While its difficult to put unwrapped toys in the trucks for kids due to regulations, we graciously accepted the gift. In the weeks that followed, some of us adopted them as our personal “Mascots.” This guy caught my eye, and I snatched him up! His little Tag says his name was Paul. That really doesn’t seem appropriate to me, so I want to name him, and I want YOUR help! While some folks on Twitter offered up a few great suggestions, I think I’m looking for something more EMS related. So what do you think? What should I name...

I was visiting with one of our Educational Coordinators the other day, and I noticed this cartoon drawn by Paul Combs who you might have heard of over at The Happy Medic’s blog. Now, how does that cartoon make you feel?Do you have a little chuckle over it?Its very well drawn, and rather amusing, but to me, its quite alarming, and it defines our struggle pretty accurately. I fall short of saying that its the perfect depiction of the struggle of EMS because I would make one change to it.The yoke and egg whites would actually be money.Isn’t that really what it comes down to?Isn’t that really what is holding us back?Everyone is worried about getting their hand in the cookie jar, instead of worrying about what is truly important: the patients.Until that changes, we will continue to struggle, stay stagnant and fail to evolve Think about it: we are seeing abuse in every size and type of system, and if we redesign them to reduce transports, what does that mean?Less income.It will be very difficult the reduction of revenue flow in any service if you can’t supplement it from elsewhere.Municipal services such as Fire or 3rd Services use it to reduce their necessary tax basis.Private services use it to keep the trucks on the road, and the stakeholders happy. Simply put: money makes the EMS world go ’round. It shouldn’t matter if you get paid for this or you do it as a volunteer.It shouldn’t matter if you park your truck next to one that has hoses, or a police car, or another unstaffed ambulance.If you want the real answer to the question “Who does the best job providing prehospital care to the sick and injured?”it was best put into words by Michael Morse, author of Rescuing Providence: “An EMS system staffed by trained and motivated individuals is the most effective way to deliver quality patient care to the community.” I admit that I am taking his words out of context.At the time, he was talking about how efficient Providence Fire is at handling the EMS side of things in their city, but that sentence could be applied to any EMS system in...

2010 was a year of change for me, and a year of growth.EMSin the New Decade wasn’t my first attempt at blogging, but it’s the first time I’ve actually stuck with it.I was able to find my voice, and thanks to some help from some great people, I was able to get my voice out there to a much larger portion of our community. It all started with blogging for me, and after my experiences with some of the great friends I have made through the Social Media Community, that love of blogging expanded to Podcasting, which has become quite the addiction for me.What it all comes down to is if it wasn’t for people like RJ Stine, Kyle David Bates, Chris Montera, Natalie Quebodeaux and the whole Generation Medicine team, no one would have heard me. I created a simple pin, a symbol that has become a frequently displayed image on the internet, and has become associated with a great cause: EMS 2.0 and Chronicles of EMS.Thanks to Justin, Ted, and Mark for letting me play a little role as part of their team! Above everything else though, I’ve made some terrific friends.I could take up pages and pages naming them here.Through Tweets, text messages, Skype calls and blog comments, I’ve shared some great times and great moments with some incredible people.It’s an honor to know each and every one of you and I can’t wait to see what this year has to offer us. I have realized though that as 2011 opens, I still have a long way to go.While I have found my “voice” I am still growing comfortable with it.Very few people that I work with know about this blog.Slowly, I’ve become more comfortable with sharing it with some people, but that hasn’t been easy for me.I want more people to read it, but I also want more people to understand it, and learn from what I have said here, and the messages I plan on sharing in the future. While I was at EMS Expo in Dallas, I was sitting at the bar in the Sheraton with Steve Whitehead sharing a beer, while we waited for the rest of...

The first post of EMS in the New Decade went up on February 26th of this year. Now, 49 posts later, I’m finishing out 2010. I thought though, that I’d finish up the year with a story from the earlier part of my career. December 18th, 1998 started out not unlike many of my EMS shifts. I was home from college and working a volunteer day shift at Toms River EMS. This was my winter break before I started medic school, so this break would be my last opportunity to have any sort of “freedom” before I spent the next year learning how to be a Paramedic. We were dispatched across town for the female, possible CVA. I didn’t recognize the house when I pulled up and walked in, with the district’s police officer, the son of a family friend, right behind me. The woman sitting on the couch looked up at me, “Scott? Jeff?” I realized at that moment that this was a close friend both my parent’s and the parents of the officer. She had some increased generalized weakness and speech problems before calling 911. The symptoms had since resolved, much to her relief. Her BP was a little bit high, but everything out seemed to check out. My partner and I packaged her up and we were off to the hospital. I rode in back with her having a generally pleasant conversation, spending time catching up since I hadn’t seen her since my high school graduation party almost a year and a half prior. Once we turned over care, she thanked me for everything and gave me a big hug. I made sure to check back on her as much as I could during the rest of my shift just to make sure she was alright. Fast forward now, to two and a half years later. I had just graduated from College was having a graduation party down at my parent’s place in New Jersey. My parent’s friend, the TIA patient from a few years prior, came with a wrapped present for me. I opened it up, and found a framed copy of the following: “FIRST RESPONDER” A blood soaked hand...

Our jobs don’t stop for Holidays. The 911 phones keep ringing and facilities keep calling. For a number of years, I always worked the holidays. I come from a family of EMS professionals who were always very understanding, and willing to float a holiday to a day or two after Christmas or Thanksgiving, admittedly also for my own personal gain (holiday pay) but the knowledge that I let someone have some time with their kids was always equally rewarding. This month, I felt the need to throw my hat into the Ring for my friend Leanne’s topic for The Handover, an EMS Blog Carnival. Leanne writes a terrific blog over at Just My Blog, and was the 2010 recipient of the Bob Nixon Scholarship for EMS Expo. This month, she’s asking for everyone’s funniest EMS Holiday moment. While my story might not be that funny knee slapper, it was a moment that really put a smile on my face. My partner and I were finishing up our overnight shift from December 23rd into Christmas Eve. We were going to be off for eight hours and then start another sixteen hour shift into Christmas Day. Early in the morning, shortly before we were supposed to go home, we were dispatched to the “Unresponsive Male.” When we arrived, we found a girl who had brought her new boyfriend home with her from college for Christmas with the family. He was in bed, and she couldn’t wake him up. We could tell what was wrong with this kid simply by looking at him. He was diaphoretic, and would not wake up no matter what we did. The Sugar check confirmed our suspicions: He was Hypoglycemic. I went to work on the line, and my partner loaded up the D50. Within ten minutes of our arrival, our patient was up and talking to us. They had gotten in late the night before, and he had taken his insulin before dozing off, and didn’t have dinner. We asked his girlfriend’s mother to make some breakfast for him, and I gave him a stern lecture while my partner got on the horn to Medical Control to get permission to release...