It is Spring Break and we have been working non-stop negotiating revisions to the FY2011 budget. Even expensive private universities have revenue issues.
Not gonna lie, it has been brutal. I need a break
The weather-guesser promises two stunningly beautiful days in DC.
NATIONAL EMS & 9-1-1 STAKEHOLDERS MEETING
I am escaping the budget blues to spend the next two days at a federally sponsored “stakeholder’s” meeting in at the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda.
United States Emergency Medical Services started as a federally-funded program during the Great Society movement by President Lyndon B. Johnson in the mid-1960’s. Decades after the federal funding dried-up, the organizational and regulatory framework remained. Works great for some communities, is strangling others.
Almost every part and piece of what we construct as our local EMS system is scheduled for a major revision or is warping under the pressure of more demands with less resources.
The movement from vocational ems training, the only educational program housed in the Department of Transportation, to Scope of Practice in 2013 is a major changes impacting EMS in the next decade.
Eventually, recommendations from the 2006 Institute of Medicine report: Emergency Medical Services At the Crossroads will receive funding.
This stakeholder meeting is part of the federal process of oversight, funding and regulation of EMS.
The Federal Interagency Committee on Emergency Medical Services (FICEMS) is conducting a National EMS and 9-1-1 Stakeholders meeting on March 17-18, 2010 in Washington, DC. The meeting is sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security, Office of Health Affairs.
At this meeting, the FICEMS leadership will present a brief overview of current Federal EMS and 9-1-1 related activities, respond to questions and listen to the opinions and ideas of national organizations and interested individuals about national EMS priorities and future directions. We propose the meeting as one way to improve communications between EMS stakeholders and Federal agencies. The meeting summary will be provided to FICEMS and to the National EMS Advisory Council. (link here)
While not as exciting as twittering with Chronicles of EMS evangelists, it is part of how EMS 2.0 gets federal resources.
Some of the resources that might end up at my university. Cannot get away from the money issue 
Mike “FossilMedic” Ward
A Small Win for the Fire/Rescue Service
CommentsIN PENNSYLVANIA, AS IN MOST OTHER STATES, the Home Builders Association has launched a vile disinformation campaign against the implementation of the 2009 International Residential Code that went into effect on January 1. The revised code requires all newly constructed townhomes in Pennsylvania, built after Jan. 1, 2010, and all newly constructed one- and two-family homes built after Jan. 1, 2011, to contain a residential fire sprinkler system.
The Pennsylvania HBA has not only started spreading downright lies about the Code, but they also filed a lawsuit against the state in an attempt to block the adoption of the revised code. As part of the lawsuit, they asked for an injunction to halt implementation of the code until the lawsuit was settled, a process that could take years.
On Wednesday March 10 Commonwealth Court Judge Johnny Butler denied the injunction, saying that it does nothing to address the underlying issue they are citing.
The builders’ lawsuit will continue forward, though. It (the suit) claims that changes written by an outside code commission and adopted Dec. 31 by the state is an unconstitutional delegation of lawmaking authority. Judge Butler, in denying the injunction, reminded the builders that the 2006 Code that they are petitioning to go back to were produced by the same process that they are now saying is unconstitutional.
While the lawsuit is still standing, Firegeezer believes that the judge’s point is a strong one and may complicate the HBA’s suit. For now, the new code is still in effect, a small win for the public’s safety.
As part of the war of competing press releases, the National Fire Sprinkler Association published an op-ed in the Scranton Times Tribune HERE that contains some good points that you could add to your own arsenal of facts when the inevitable blizzard of disinformation from the builders and developers in your area begins.