Since age 10, I’ve had an on-again, off-again relationship with the guitar. It started with weekly lessons at a music store, where I learned how to play simple scales and chords. About 10 years ago my brother-in-law encouraged me to play with him in front of people at church. I did, and it didn’t go [...]
Narc Policies that Make it Hard to Do the Right Thing
April 16, 2013 by 4 Comments
Several ALS procedures, such as intubation, IV fluids for trauma, and ACLS drugs have not been proven to make a difference or have been shown to cause harm. Pain management, however, is one procedure that we positive does help. Consider this excerpt from a 2000 Journal of the Royal Army Medical Care article that Peter Canning wrote [...]
Less of That, More of This
April 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Over at EMS 1, ambulance driving expert Kelly Grayson wrote an excellent column about how he became a “stand back, big picture, non-interventional paramedic.” He describes how he would manage a crashing pulmonary edema patient at different phases of his career. The interventions became less invasive at each phase, to the benefit of the patient. [...]
Why EMS Applicant Screening Matters
March 29, 2013 by 2 Comments
One of my soap boxes is that EMS needs to do a better job of picking people for the tremendous responsibility we have. How many other professions place people alone with some of society’s most vulnerable people as often as we do? Last year an EMT with the service that covers my home town was [...]
In Ft. Worth, MedStar Treated My Aunt the Way I Would Treat a Family Member
March 20, 2013 by 4 Comments
I got a phone call from my aunt who lives in Ft. Worth about a month ago. She had fallen and injured her shoulder, and was in a tremendous amount of pain after. She told me how wonderful the paramedics from MedStar who took her to the hospital were. They explained what they were doing, [...]
Who Will the Community Paramedics Be?
March 10, 2013 by 1 Comment
Last week I was in Washington DC for EMS on the Hill Day. Unfortunately the meetings with our representatives were cancelled because a predicted but unrealized snow storm. NAEMT anticipated that the government may close, and offered presentations about how healthcare reform will affect EMS reimbursement and the development of two Community Paramedic programs. Soon [...]
Somewhere Between 8 Minutes and Whenever We Get There: That’s Our Problem
March 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment
My friend and recently new coworker Scott “Medic SBK” Keir wrote about a pseudo-controversy from where he used to work about long response times. In AMR’s contract with Springfield, MA, they must arrive within 10 minutes to priority 1 calls 95% of the time. After one 17-minute respone time to a shooting, a reporter discovered that AMR did [...]
Advancing My Education
February 8, 2013 by 1 Comment
Forgive me Blogfather, for I have sinned. It’s been over a month since my last post. I know you don’t like excuses, but the class I’m taking this semester is kicking my ass. There are lots of things I’d like to write about, but all of my free time is being taken writing papers. I hope [...]
Let’s All Call Out Sick New Year’s Eve! That’ll Show ‘em.
January 5, 2013 by 2 Comments
The EMS system in our nation’s capital kicked off 2013 with more bad headlines. This is from EMS1: A D.C. man died while waiting for an ambulance amidst a city-wide staff shortage when more than 100 firefighters called in sick on New Year’s Eve. While the union president denied that the call-out was organized, to [...]
Book Review: You Called 911 For What?
January 3, 2013 by 2 Comments
I recently had the pleasure of reading Dave Konig’s ebook You Called 911 For What? It is a mix of history about the 911 system, humorous dialog between 911 callers and operators, and a little bit about the lifestyle of EMS workers. I was concerned that the book would contain war stories of a burned [...]
