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EMS on the Hill Day

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Who IS this guy?

What was he doing in the Nation's Capital yesterday?

Who knew he had a suit :)

2011 EMS on the Hill Day

On May 4 in Washington, D.C., 145 EMS professionals from 39 states and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico advocated for EMS at the second annual EMS on the Hill Day.

The event was hosted by the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians (NAEMT) to help ensure that emergency medical services (EMS) has a strong voice in the nation’s capitol and in government decisions that affect its practitioners and their ability to provide quality patient care to their patients.

Participants met with more than 217 U.S. Senators, House Representatives, and their congressional staff. With a new Congress, it was critical that EMS professionals educate their legislators in the Senate and House of Representatives on EMS issues and advocate for the passage of key EMS legislation.

Last year, the EMS profession “came of age” with its first designated day for meeting with congressional leaders. Building upon that success, EMS on the Hill Day 2011 included representation from all sectors of the EMS community, sent a consistent message to elected leaders on the important issues facing EMS in our country, and gave EMS professionals the opportunity to build and strengthen relationships with congressional leaders.

“EMS on the Hill Day is a unique event that provides the opportunity for EMS professionals to make their voices heard on Capitol Hill. Members of Congress want to hear from their constituents about issues that matter,” says Connie A. Meyer, NAEMT President. “I am pleased that so many EMS professionals made it a priority to come to Washington, D.C. The more EMS professionals who participate in EMS on the Hill Day, the louder our national voice.”

Click HERE for more details

Mike "FossilMedic" Ward

 

Posted by on May 5, 2011 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, ambulances, EMS Health & Safety, EMS Topics, Funding & Staffing, News, Technology & Communications, Training & Development, Urban Commander, Vehicle Operation & Ambulances • Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

EMS Expo tidbits: “Had the cruise control set at 105 mph – saw nothing for four hours”

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Best quote from my 30 hour experience at the EMS Expo earlier this week.

Source was Doctor Bryan Bledsoe, describing a speaking engagement experience. No, he was not in the Middle East, this was a United States gig.

He was driving a Honda Fit (!!)
Forgot to ask if he had Mugen upgrades or his gas mileage. Fits get 33 highway/27 city.

EMS now a physician ABET subspecialty

The National Association of EMS Physicians happily announced success in getting EMS added as the sixth subspecialty available to American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) diplomates along with Medical Toxicology, Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Sports Medicine, Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine, and Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

September 28 press release HERE. First exam anticipated for 2013.

This was the second attempt in 20 years by NAEMSP to achieve subspecialty status.

Since the first effort, NAEMSP established Prehospital Emergency Care in 1997 as the peer-reviewed professional journal for EMS. It has grown in “power” as a primary source document for professional information.

A subset of NAEMSP members established the U.S. Metropolitan Municipalities EMS Medical Directors Consortium in 1998.

Fondly known as the “Eagles,” their annual EMS State of the Science spring conference has changed how ems trade magazines and EMS conferences are conducted.   link HERE.

Why should ems providers care about ABEM subspecialty status?

Physician professional development and academic promotion is built upon recognized professional subspecialties. With EMS as an ABET subspecialty, academic internships and fellowships carry more value and an EMS oriented medical student can plan a professional development path that can lead to academic promotion to Associate Professor or Professor.

Academic emergency medicine needs this element to build and maintain a robust group of physician educators and researchers that can grow evidence-based medicine that will allow the EMS Scope of Practice to walk it’s promising talk.

Wednesday night EMS meet-up was great

Apparently, Justin Schorr IS becoming the 21st century John Gage.

Justin interviewed the fire/ems bloggers who were at the rooftop party in Dallas, showing a smooth and unflappable interview style.

Even after John Mitchell, Kelly Grayson and I went fanboi on him at the start of our group interview.

Go to Chronicles of EMS website to see our childish performance HERE. Check out the other videos and the rest of the site. This is the home of EMS 2.0.

Bonus result of the interview was getting Motorcop as a Twitter follower after I mentioned his audio crossover episode with Justin. HERE

FossilMedic overwhelmed at MEET THE BLOGGER booth Thursday afternoon

from an email typed out between the waves of visitors:

47 minutes – no fans, one attendee who never heard of Firegeezer and Kelly “Ambulance Driver” Grayson stopped by …

But I have given out dozens of EMS Monopoly game flyers, turfed one JEMS subscription problem and talked to a military member about GWU.

Not bringing the Fire Gnome was a huge mistake.

Mike “FossilMedic” Ward

Posted by on October 2, 2010 • Filed under: EMS Topics, News • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Morning Lineup – April 16

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If you’re planning on heading out to the shopping mall tomorrow, the retailing giant Sears is running a special 1-day promotion where they are giving a 10% discount on almost everything in the store (but not home appliances) to firefighters, police, teachers, military and hospital workers.  According to a press release, they say it’s being honored at “select stores,” which means that for whatever reason some of them won’t be honoring the program.

If you want to find out more, they have a special webpage here:  http://www.sears.com/shc/s/dap_10153_12605_DAP_Salute+to+Heroes  where you can find out the rules and print out your savings coupons.  Hopefully some of you will be able to take advantage of this nice discount.  I see that power mowers are included, too.

*  *  *  *  *

It’s a really strange event going on in northern Europe with this spreading cloud of volcanic ash drifting over the continent.  In most cases, it wouldn’t be a problem other than a filtering of sunshine and creating some strange atmospheric effects.  I recall about 18 or 20 years ago when a volcano in the Philipines blew its top (I think its name was spelled Pinatubo, or something like that) and it sent untold billions of tons of ash into the atmosphere.  A couple of weeks later here in North America we had a few days where the sun was a nice ruby color.  Very strange.

But this cloud is hanging low and has completely shut down air travel throughout all of Europe.  I’m sure you have seen some news reports by now about the many thousands of stranded air passengers camped out around the globe.  One of them is our colleague Mark Glencorse, publisher of the Medic999 blog and co-conspirator with The Happy Medic in the Chronicles of EMS video series.  Mark and Justin were both in Denver all week for a conference with their sponsor Zoll, but when it came time for Mark to fly back home to the UK…..Buzzzz.

volcano a map BBC

The ash zone will be constantly expanding throughout the day.

It was announced today that the continental air travel will be suspended again today with about 17,000 flights cancelled.  The airport in Frankfurt set up 1,000 cots for stranded passengers and all of them were immediately put into use.  What a mess, eh?

Well, we’d better make sure we don’t have a mess today and get this equipment checked out.  I need to get more coffee started, so I’ll take care of that.  We’ll meet back in the day room in a few minutes.

volcano b plume reuters

Posted by on April 16, 2010 • Filed under: morning lineup • Tagged: , , , ,

Are Justin & Mark the 21st Century Gage & DeSoto?

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SPEND MOST OF THE WEEKEND WISHING I WAS IN SAN FRANCISCO. 

Friday night was the world premiere of Episode 1 of the Chronicles of EMS. It covered the visit of Mark Glencourse, a Paramedic team leader for the north east ambulance service based in Newcastle upon Tyne and author of the 999Medic blog, with Justin Schorr, a San Francisco firefighter/paramedic who is know to many as The Happy Medic.

emsmediaTV25 copy

This adventure started almost a year ago, with Mark and Justin comparing their different ems systems through their blogs. Two other paramedics, with experience in filmaking, raised the discussion to a higher level. They documented Mark’s visit to San Francisco.

Thaddeus Setla completed a documentary about Alameda County EMS, LEVEL ZERO. For Chronicles of EMS Setla used four high definition cameras. For reasons unknown to me, Justin and Mark kept referring to Setla as the “Jedi Master.”

Chris Montera is Colorado based paramedic who functioned as the producer for the Chronicles project. Montera is CEO/Producer and Host for EMS Garage, EMS Leadership and is the Producer of EMS Educast podcasts.

HOTEL FRANK

The world premiere was in an eclectic Union Square hotel with wi-fi installed a week earler. Like many emergency service adventures, this event worked on a short lead time, with just-in-time (or a little late) deliveries. Watching the streaming video, the 60+ attendees seemed giddy before the showing and tipsy after the premiere.

justin4The episode was stunning, an example of REAL reality TV. Interesting people telling compelling stories rich in texture. It helps that Justin and Mark are photogenic and articulate.

I enjoyed the interaction between Justin and Mark. During the week they were filming, both posted blog updates, Thaddeus set up a facebook fan page, and a couple of dozen ems-oriented bloggers/tweeters commented on the adventure.

For some of us, the premiere finally allowed us to see the stories we read about months ago.

TWO THEMES

The first is the difference in transport options, UK does not HAVE to transport every patient encountered.

The second is that there is no charge for ambulance service in the UK. The concept that access to emergency care would be affected by the ability to pay really troubled Mark, providing a moving final scene in the movie. Glencourse

There also was a hilarious short where they acted out Mark’s perception of United States ems. Can see Zoll working on the credit card option for the 12-lead. The paramedic can swipe the credit card to process the ambulance payment before the leads are connected to the patient.

SOCIAL MEDIA

On Saturday afternoon, Setla and company set up two additional episodes.  Roundtable discussion about the Seat At The Table, sort of a “what’s next” discussion of the impact of the process in getting Episode 1 completed, changes in the paramedic profession (EMS 2.0) and a new generation of ems “true believers.:

The final episode was a round table on the impact of Social Media on EMS. Covered public education, training, HIPPA and quality improvement.

Justin and Mark will be at the EMS Today conference in Baltimore, March 4-6. Details will eventually be posted on the Chronicles web site.

Mike “FossilMedic” Ward

Posted by on February 13, 2010 • Filed under: EMS Topics, News • Tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,

A delayed meet

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I wanted to attend the San Francisco premiere of the Chronicles of EMS at the interesting Hotel Frank.

chroniclesblog-200x150Would get to meet a few famous bloggers: The Happy Medic, 999Medic, Life Under The Lights and (bonus) Motorcop!

But sadly concluded that I could not swing an overnight stay at the west coast.   :(

SNOWMAGEDDON

The campus closed early Friday afternoon at the start of a heavy snowstorm. Here is what my schedule became:

GWU_snow_schedule

This morning most of Washington DC remains closed, including government and schools. Snowmageddon has exceeded the snowfall of the Blizzard of 1899. Thankfully, Snowmageddon has not had the artic cold that hammered the East Coast 111 years ago, where DC set a February record of −15 °F (−26 °C).

Snow fell in Washington for 51 hours, from February 11 to February 14, 1899, accumulating 20 inches. The Washingtoniana Division, D.C. Public Library documents include reports of artic winds creating ten foot high snowdrifts.

EMERGENCY SERVICES

Foggy Bottom Amb 23, from dcfd.com

Foggy Bottom Amb 23, from dcfd.com

I was working on Rescue 18 (ambulance) when the 1979 President’s Birthday blizzard rolled in the afternoon of February 19.

About 2 am we ended up on the median of Arlington Boulevard. Backing out the ambulance, I could not see the emergency lights when standing ten feet behind the ambulance – whiteout.

The storm dumped 19 inches in 12 hours. Followed by an ice storm two days later.

Dave Statter has been covering Snowmageddon challenges: serious fires, near-misses, damaged and destroyed fire stations (HERE).

IF I HAD BOUGHT A PLANE TICKET

I still would have not made it to the Friday night Chronicles of EMS premiere. The DC area airports have been closed since Tuesday.

Hope to see Justin and Mark at the 2010 EMS Today Conference in Baltimore. I should be dug out by the first week in March.

Mike “FossilMedic” Ward

Posted by on February 11, 2010 • Filed under: EMS Topics • Tagged: , , ,

Around the Fire Web

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*  There is a new fire blog that just started up that we are going to be watching.  It’s called  A Firefighter’s Own Worst Enemy and is being published by a fire marshal in the Mid-West.  It focuses on training aspects related to inspections and pre-planning, to start with.  Check out his first posting HERE.

*  STATter911 has collated an extensive supply of videos and more reports on those twin Family Dollar store fires in Rochester yesterday HERE.  Be sure to scroll down to the next story about the strange Search & Rescue practices of a New Zealand FD that left a woman in a burning building because they presumed she was dead (she wasn’t).

*  FireNews.net has an interesting story from Winston-Salem about the consequences from the city’s change to a more aggressive commercial inspection program HERE.  Needless to say, the business owners like the “old way” better where they didn’t have to comply with the codes.

*  Medic999 proudly announces that the joint venture with Happy Medic known as the Chronicles of EMS has passed the 2,000-fan mark on their Facebook fan page.  Read about it and what they’re up to HERE.

*  Don’t forget that the best way to scan the top fire and ems blogs each day (after you first check Firegeezer, of course) is to click onto the FireEMS Blogs community website where you have direct links to the best blogs along with summaries of what the latest topics are.  There are also links to leading forums and regional news sites.  So CLICK HERE and get acquainted with the layout and see the benefits of launching your web visit there.

Posted by on November 24, 2009 • Filed under: Fire Blogs • Tagged: , , , , ,

… after they see Paris

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How will you keep them down on the farm, after they have seen Paris?

Popular 1919 song reflected on the results of farm boys seeing the sights as World War I soldiers.

San Francisco Paramedic/Firefighter Justin “The Happy Medic” Schorr spent his first day riding with North East Ambulance Service Paramedic Mark “999 Medic” Glencorse.

He may never be the same.   From his post:

I was able to have a quick interaction with some of the Firefighters assigned to the station with Mark and the Ambulance crews, nothing more than a quick introduction between calls, but it was later in the morning when I learned I don’t have it nearly as good as I thought.

While heading out to the pouring rain, I bumped into the station cleaning crew mopping the floors. The fireman don’t do the big housework. No wonder mark was so surprised when I gloved up and cleaned toilets back home.

Later in the morning still, I met the Station’s French Chef. They don’t cook their own food either. These are two things I think identify the firehouse as a home. It seemed more like a school than a fire house.

Mike “FossilMedic” Ward

Posted by on November 20, 2009 • Filed under: EMS Topics • Tagged: , , , ,