If you had the power to change the world, what would you do?  Well, here’s a news flash, there should be no “if” in this sentence.  We all have the power to change the world, and the group here at the First Responders Network is setting out to do just that. Next Friday, we will be releasing the first edition of “Interventions: An EMS 2.0 Perspective of the Field” the new quarterly magazine from the authors of the First Responders Network.  It will be a ground breaking, trend setting publication that will be published online containing not only articles from the FRN Bloggers and some guest authors but video and audio content as well, all geared towards solving many of the issues that we face every day. The first edition has been a two month project that many of us have kept rather quiet, but that time is over!  The URL will be released next Friday, and the free online magazine will be out there for all of you to read. Keep an eye on Twitter, and watch out facebook page for updates....

This Post can also be found at the First Few Moments website. What sorts of contingency plans does your department have?  Are you ready for anything?  For instance: what would your staff do if there was a sudden crash of your communication infrastructure?  Are they assigned a centralized meeting location?  Does your current radio system support a backup frequency that allows your units to talk to each other? Issues like this one lived quite often in the back of my mind prior to this year.  In the last three months though, my service has faced a tornado, an earthquake, and as I write this post, we are staring down Hurricane Irene which is threatening to make landfall in New England sometime late Saturday or early Sunday.  I am writing this on Wednesday, which means my service has four days to hash out every “what if” we can think of.  It’s a constant challenge to expect the unexpected, but it is something that we must do. In a previous post, I discussed how social media kept me informed of what was going on when an earthquake struck the east coast.  While my texts, tweets, and status updates went through, my phone calls did not.  It didn’t matter if I was calling a friend in Virginia or my parents in New Jersey, it was all met with either poor reception or no reception at all.  I’ll pause for you all to make your “Well, you have AT&T jokes…” Done?  Okay, good. My main point is, in a disaster, as much as we would like to, we cannot expect to rely on cell phones or even landlines.  What we need is training, policy, and a plan.  “If dispatch goes down, meet up at the corner of Main Street and Central Street.”  Give your crews a place to go and regroup, and put in the hands of senior staff a means by which to get the calls to those crews.  At that point, it does not matter how it gets done, the focus should be in minimizing the interruption of service as much as possible. A while ago, I talked about how great my part time job was.  I say...

I was sitting in my office on Tuesday afternoon working on some blog posts, research and plans for my upcoming trip to Las Vegas.  As usual, on my top monitor (I have two) I had Tweetdeck running alongside iTunes.  As I heard a plane flying overhead, I started to feel something weird.  I was leaning back and balancing on my chair as I typed, and it felt like it was shaking.  I leaned back to anchor the chair against my second desk, but the shaking did not stop. My office is off of my living room, and as I looked out towards my front door I noticed that a lamp sitting next to my couch had started swaying, and my cat, who had previously been fast asleep on the arm of the chair had her ears turned back, and really didn’t look happy.  That is when it dawned on me: Earthquake?  Earthquake! It is not often that an earthquake hits the east coast, but given the recent weather patterns we’ve been dealing with (Snow, tornado etc.) I really am not surprised by anything.  I still wasn’t sure what had happened though.  I looked out my front door, and all was well in my quiet little neighborhood, no big cracks in the ground, the earth hadn’t opened up and swallowed my Jetta, so all was well as far as I was concerned. When I got back to my desk, I looked up at Tweetdeck, and noticed that my feed was flooded with comments about the earthquake.  Literally maybe 30 seconds had passed since the shaking had stopped, and I saw reports from all over the east coast: Richmond, VA, Boston, MA, New York City, Philadelphia, New Jersey.  Through the power of social media, I already was getting an idea of what was going on without even having to turn to the television. That took me back to the tornado that had hit back on June 1st of this year.  As soon as the tornado touched town, twitter started up.  Many of us, myself included, posted alerts and updates as we got them.  Throughout the night, I was always putting posts up to let my friends...

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...

As I sit here early on this Monday afternoon, I have realized that I have not posted anything in the past week.  It’s a great example of the fact that this blogging thing?  It ain’t easy! I love writing, and it has really gotten me through a lot over the last year.  It has been an outlet for me to share my ideas, and it has allowed me to vent out a lot of my frustrations both with my job and with the field in general.  My ideas for what I write though come from a lot of different places: 1.  What I see that is going well — I constantly read about other services, and due to my position, I have an insider view into what is going on with the service that I work for.  Best practices are something that we all must understand and embrace if we are going to take EMS to the next level, and their stories need to be told. 2.  What I see that is not going well — I had someone ask me a question about one of my blog posts once.  They thought that based on what I had written, my service had a PIO.  Well, sadly, we do not.  I see a great need for one, as well as a great need to tackle other challenges both locally and nationally.  Not everything is all “puppy dogs and butterflies” in EMS, and just as the good needs to be talked about, so does the bad. 3.  Past experiences — There is always time to reminisce about the good ole days, and there are a lot of reasons to do it.  It lets us learn from our mistakes, and sometimes it’s a great way to put a smile on someone’s face.  Much like the fire service, there is a certain degree of tradition built into the field.  We are much younger than the fire service, but there are still lots of stories to be told. 4.  Moments of inspiration — Take a look at my post entitled Camaraderie.  I wrote that whole thing while sitting in a bar having breakfast.  There were lots of topics in...

A state realizes it is in trouble so they call in a group to do a comprehensive study of their EMS system. After a year long study complete with focus groups lasting 8 hours a piece and evaluations of systems, what kind of group would turn up their noses at the results of the study? One that is blinded by their own ignorance, of course. I am once again firing a shot across the bow of the New Jersey First Aid Council. I took some time over the last couple of days to reread the EMS study done in New Jersey and am once again left shaking my head at what I see. It is no surprise to me that when asked for data about member squads of the NJFAC, they refused to provide any information. When the consulting firm asked the NJSFAC to help facilitate meetings with member sfqeuads to ask their opinions of the direction of EMS in New Jersey, they once again refused to provide any assistance. The goal of the study was to improve EMS in New jersey and an organization that claims to be dedicated to that exact mission refused to participate. So the study went forward, and sound recommendations were made to help improve the system state wide based on established proven best practices and what do they do? They throw a tantrum declaring that the changes could hurt the volunteer EMS system in the state which for the most part is on life support already. . News flash: It’s not 1966 anymore and we are not just talking about turning herses into ambulances and driving them as fast as possible to the closest hospital. Emts and paramedics are now clinicians with decision making ability and interventions potentially at their finger tips that could save lives. None of that matters to the New Jersey State First Aid Council though. Expanding the scope of practice would require more training and training takes time. That is something the NJSFAC doesn’t seem to think it’s members have. They are content with the job they are able to do now and think the general public should be as well because they do...