EMS
Michael Smith and Chad Guillot | 10/18/2009

(The following is part one of a three part series on EMS telemedicine.)
 
BR Med-Connect is an EMS telemedicine system recently installed in East Baton Rouge Parish (BR), Louisiana. Currently in a pilot phase, the system is fully functional and is now being used for actual patient care. The system has been planned by, and is now managed by an interdisciplinary team representing each of the system’s key components. This team has selected and begun to implement a diverse group of medical applications for actual patient care and study purposes. It is expected that the program will prove successful and cause many in EMS to revisit their concept of EMS telemedicine.

EMS
Brad Van Ert | 01/11/2010

The National Fire Fighter Near-Miss Reporting System has recently added a link to the website specifically for EMS. Those making reports will be connected directly to the website by typing “EMSnearmiss.com.”into their browser. There are many reports in the system that apply to EMS incidents. The following excerpt from Near-Miss Report (#08-066) shows us how we can use the EMSnearmiss.com website to learn from the experiences of others.

Fire
KEN NEWELL | 10/18/2009

Did your Department apply for this grant? Were you successful? If not, will there be another opportunity next year?

In the last article we looked in depth at the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 which provided the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with $210,000,000 to fund the construction and modifications of fire stations. The program is administered by the Assistance to Firefighters Program Office under FEMA’s Grant Programs Directorate. The grants under this new program are being awarded directly to the fire departments on a competitive basis.

Rescue
Lenny Yox | 10/18/2009

During the past year, more people than ever before have been buying larger than normal quantities of ammunition and reloading components. There are many reasons for those purchases -- and I will not try to cover them in this article.

I will, however, try to bring out some of the additional dangers posed to us, the responders on a fire or other emergency.

KEEPING YOU SAFE
MICHAEL P. DALLESSANDRO | 01/11/2010

In the fire service there are people who just drive fire apparatus, and there are drivers who skillfully drive and operate fire apparatus safely. I have been very fortunate over the years as a guest speaker, to be able to travel to many conferences and fire departments that held safe apparatus operator workshops. Through my travels I have met many skilled apparatus driver/operators and I have also met a number of people who just drive fire trucks. There is a difference. I have been driving fire apparatus myself for approximately 25 years, but have only really been an apparatus driver/operator for about 18 of those 24 years.

Education and Training
TIM WOJCIK | 01/11/2010

In 1975, James Kidd wrote a book entitled How Adults Learn. In his book he outlines 10 “commandments”for adult educators. In this issue, I would like to unpack the first five of these words of wisdom, slightly paraphrased, and apply them to educating our firefighters and EMS providers.

Fire
Harris Griff Mason | 10/18/2009

A better understanding of the presence of Carbon Monoxide (CO), more available training, new research, evolving equipment and shared experience are giving us the tools to finally relegate Carbon Monoxide poisoning to a manageable danger.

That’s the good news.

Education and Training
MICHAEL P. DALLESSANDRO | 10/18/2009

I recently had the opportunity to participate in a training program that focused on drivers of commercial vehicles driving distracted. The program that I was involved in was based on a recent 100 car “naturalistic driving study” that was conducted by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA).

A naturalistic study observes drivers with multiple video cameras located both inside and outside the vehicle over a long period of time. Most drivers, when observed for short periods of time, will be on their best behavior. However, when the cameras become a normal part of the driver’s natural environment, most drivers lapse into their normal driving habits.

Fire
JOE MANCOS | 01/11/2010

I have been told that to be successful in any emergency field you must “think outside the box.”In this article, we are going to explore rapid assessment and prehospital treatment of severe Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI). The skull has been often described as the box the brain is enclosed in. With this in mind, let us review the basic anatomy, assessment and treatment for head injuries as well as some common pitfalls when treating the head injury patient in the prehospital environment.

Equipment
TIM WOJCIK | 10/18/2009

Let me take a quick second to stand on my soapbox. Have you ever noticed that we in the fire service are quick and passionate when it comes to training on things like RIT, Mayday Drills and Self Rescue? This is a good thing, but have you also noticed that we tend to be equally as passionate against preventive training and actions? Have you ever been written up for not wearing a seatbelt or using a backer? What was your response? I bet there was passion, but not the good kind!