Fire Rescue: Emergency Medical Services News

Doug Edenburn, NREMT-P | 04/21/2013

There can be little doubt that evidence based medicine is here to stay. EMS has seen a number of treatments and gadgets added to its bag of tricks in the past decade or so thanks to this concept. Conversely, more than a few treatments have fallen victim to the unforgiving standards of evidence based practice. At its core, evidence-based medicine requires that clinicians make treatment decisions consistent with sound scientific support. Scientific evidence is demonstrated through a variety of research methods, the results of which are most commonly presented in the form of research papers published in academic journals. The ability to read an... Read More...

Relevant Tags: EMS 2013, research, ems, paper, medical, basic, medical research, ems providers, clinical research, research paper, secondary research, epidemiological research, basic research, evidence based, ems provider

By Mary Elizabeth Robertson, Courtesy of The News Herald | 01/10/2013

The pager goes off and Clinton Lowman drops what he is doing to rush to his black pickup. There’s an emergency in Icard and Lowman, an Emergency Medical Technician, heads to the scene ready to help the person in need. When he arrives, he is used to folks doing a double take when they see who hops out of the truck to help them. That’s because Lowman is 93. “(A nursing home facility) had a call about 10 or 12 years ago, the first call we ran up there, one of the nurses turned around to him and asked (Lowman) if he was where he was supposed to be,” said Brand Lingerfelt, fire chief at Icard Township Fire Department. “It’s highly unusual seeing ... Read More...

Relevant Tags: EMS 2013

By Amar Patel | 01/10/2013

How many times have you attended a training symposium or seminar and been bored to tears? As the speaker drones on and on about some uninteresting topic, your mind wanders: “I think I’ll check my emails and see what’s going on back at the office. What am I going to have for dinner tonight? I need to pick up my dry-cleaning when we get out of here.” Sound familiar? Read More...

Relevant Tags: EMS 2013, educational, edutainment, sesame street, children’s television, educational programs, schoolhouse rock

By Mark D. Reese | 01/10/2013

This has been an interesting year for the country and all of the hard working public safety professionals across the United States. Many agencies have also had to deal with both large and small-scale emergencies, as well as budget problems and the balancing act that takes place between the need for services and the decline in revenue. It is never an easy environment to operate in, but with some good planning, 2013 can start out strong. Revisit Policies and Procedures If the budget axe hit your agency, you need to ensure that your current capabilities match your response policies. If you have had to cut FTEs, shut down stations, consolidate d... Read More...

Relevant Tags: EMS 2013, equipment, agencies, ems, public safety, ems 2013, budget problems, policies procedures, emergency management, mark reese

John Bierling | 10/05/2012

Is Command Failure An Acceptable Incident Outcome? One of the very hot topics of this century, so far, is the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and Incident Command System (ICS) part of NIMS. We discuss them, write about them, train and practice and hopefully use the NIMS and ICS doctrine. Read More...

Relevant Tags: incident, ics, emergency, system, command control, command system, incident management, emergency response, fire service

By Franklin H. Russell and Keith Armfield | 10/05/2012

How many times over the past few years have you heard the term rehab or medical monitoring? These terms are some of the latest buzzwords in the emergency services realm. With that being said, how many people truly understand what it means to establish and maintain a rehab sector? In many situations people think of rehab as a bottle of water and medical monitoring as a blood pressure check. The process is much more involved and technical than that. Some situations only require company level rehab such as a single family dwelling fire or a motor vehicle crash with a pin in. Other situations require a formal technical rehab sector being establi... Read More...

Relevant Tags: EMS 2012, rehab, medical, monitoring, responders, medical monitoring, blood pressure, rehab sector, emergency services, heart rate, further evaluation

Dennis Amodio | 08/01/2012

I’ve been in the fire service for over 35 years. I can say with confidence that pre-planning is essential, but not because of my years of fire service experience. What 35 years of experience yields is a long view of where pre-plans have been, a clear picture of where they are now and a good idea of where they’re going. Or where they could go. Or where they should go. That said, I’ve seen my fair share of approaches to pre-planning over the years. There are many different ways to pre-plan, and many different forms pre-plans can take. But it wasn’t until recently that I had the chance to work with a different, more dynamic, more interactive wa... Read More...

Relevant Tags: FIRE PRE-PLANNING, electronic, planning, information, pre planning, first responders, fire service, situational awareness, planning first

Don Lundy | 08/01/2012

I read the information slowly trying to understand the issues. There is no universal telephone number for emergency medical services. There is no national certification or plan to have one. There is no national plan for training and recertification. Twenty-four percent of those who call for EMS are told that EMS cannot respond. The sheer population amount of 13.7 million versus the number of available ambulances — 40. Trauma is now the third leading cause of death in India and has a cost of three percent of the gross GDP for the nation. Approximately 1,008,409 males and 18,437 females (totaling 1,026,986) were killed in 2009 on the roads of ... Read More...

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David Hesselmeyer | 08/01/2012

How many times have you gone on EMS runs and had to play detective? Most of us would say just about every time we have responded to a call. We normally do not walk up to a patient and hear them state their problem such as “I am having an acute asthma attack brought on by my inability to pay for my medications and my exposure to the trigger mechanism.” If they did it would make our job a lot easier. We gather information from the patients by being a good detective. One tool in the detective’s box is good interviewing techniques. We have all been taught these. However, it is a combination of education and experience that can make you good at i... Read More...

Relevant Tags: EMS 2012, patient, ems, questions, interview techniques, patient interview, ems patient, fire ems

Amar Patel | 08/01/2012

There’s a saying that the only thing you can count on is change, and that’s especially true when it comes to providing emergency services. Whether you’ve recently begun using an electronic medical record (EMR) to chart your patient’s vital signs (rather than writing them on paper), or you’re participating in a new, interactive fire and rescue training activity with high-tech simulation mannequins, you know change is inevitable. The key to dealing with change in a positive way is to embrace it. Read More...

Relevant Tags: EMS 2012, ems, health, professionals, care reform, ems professionals, hill day, reform ems

By Joe Mancos | 01/11/2012

Sitting in a training class in Emmitsburg Maryland I overheard a fellow student ask another, “So, why are you here?” The answer he gave did not surprise me but it did make me think. His answer was short, to the point and honest, “Because chief told me to be here.” I asked some one else in the class the same question, and an answer I received was, “I will get a pay raise for completing this class.” We should all ask ourselves the same question when we participate in training, “Why am I here?” Read More...

Relevant Tags: EMS 2012, class, training, student, ems, fire rescue, emergency services, training session, rescue ems, public safety

By Jason Boan | 01/11/2012

We see them everywhere — on our uniforms, our ambulances, our equipment, and for some, tattooed on their body. Do you know why we use it or what it means? What is the difference in the Rod of Asclepius and a caduceus? While very similar in appearance, each has its own meaning and history tied to it. A caduceus is a winged staff with two snakes wrapped around it. The Rod of Asclepeus is a staff with a single snake wrapped around it. Read More...

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By Jim Muldrow | 01/11/2012

“How’d you get that in here?” That is the reaction of many people when they see what looks like an ambulance parked in the middle of a classroom on South Piedmont Community College’s (SPCC) Old Charlotte Highway Campus, said Dennis Baucom, SPCC’s director of Vocational Trades. Some have looked around the corner into the next room to see if the front of the ambulance is there. “Several people have asked where the front of it was,” said SPCC Emergency Medical Services Coordinator Robby Smith. “The gas cap on the side really gives it some feel like it was driven in here.” Read More...

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Will Long MD,Brett McGary MD, Edward Jauch MD MS and Don Lundy B.S., NREMT-P | 10/14/2011

(This is part two of a two-part series on bariatric patients. To read part 1, click here .) The obesity epidemic is hard to miss for those working in the health care profession; it is evident every day we work. Not only does obesity place the patient at increased risk of numerous diseases but healthcare providers face many additional challenges in evaluating and caring for these patients in the prehospital and in-hospital settings. This two part article discuss issues related to the bariatric patient and especially those issues facing prehospital professional who care for them. In part II we discuss issues related to the access, immobilizati... Read More...

Relevant Tags: EMS, patients, obese, transport, weight, obese patients, morbidly obese, body weight, bariatric patients

Bob Bartosz | 07/05/2011

Shortly after 8 a.m. on May 16, 2011, firefighters from Rocky Mount, Nashville, Coopers Fire Companies, along with Nash County EMS units responded to a Train/Vehicle Collision on the railroad tracks on Old Spring Hope Road. When the units arrived they found a mangled car that had been struck by a freight train with a male occupant trapped inside. Firefighters went to work using the jaws of life while EMS stabilized the victim. Read More...

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