letter to operations

I wanted to update the MEMS staff on the status of some of the changes in the operations side of MEMS. I wrote about two of the biggest areas we currently face, staffing and communications. I have placed the letter to employees on the employee side of the mems web site and look under memos.



Greg

FPU

A preview for FPU will be Wednesday night at 18:30. The start day of the class has been moved to February 13th due to shipment time. There are payroll deduction forms at station one, or you can down load them from the MEMS web site. http://www.metroems.org/ Look under the employee section, docs, other, there you will find the form

FPU is here!

It is here FPU (Financial Peace University) We will have a demo video on Thursday evening 18:30 at the training building for anyone who can attend. The program will offically kick off February 13th. Chris Marshall will be our class facilitator. The cost, commitment, plan along with a form and address link to sign up will be posted tomorrow.

New Year Action

Before you jump into action...
Before you fill up your schedule...
Before you set your goals...
Before you make promises and declarations...
Before you grade yourself on your accomplishments and failures...
Stop.
Get some space between the logs of your fire. Get a strong personal foundation in place so that you can be at your best this year.

Financial Peace University training

We want a better work/life balance for MEMS employees, to that end MEMS is offering the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University training starting in January. I will be posting details about cost, commitment, class or on-line structure over the next few days. This is a 12 week program that covers everything in finances from eliminating debt (including your home) savings, giving, retirement, insurance, how to deal with creditors etc… whatever you level of finance savvy is, I feel confident you will come away with new information.

http://www.daveramsey.com/home/

Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain. ~Author Unknown

annual award winners

The annual awards banquet had more in attendance that even last year. Thank you to all worked so hard to make it a success. The food decorations and fellowship were great.

The annual award winners for 2011 were announced:
Paramedic - Jayson Perry
EMT - Brandon Hooper
Dispatcher – Chris Pipkin
Employee - Janelle Johnson
Rookie - Christine Slyby
PRN - Eddie Rhine
ATCC- Curt McClung
Teamwork- Sara Oslin

Amateur Radio

An Amateur Radio Technician License class will be presented in the ADH Auditorium, 4815 W. Markham St, on November 12th and 19th from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm.

This 2 day class will present the basic knowledge required to pass the Element 2 FCC exam for the Technician Class amateur radio license.

The class is open to the public, and is free of charge. No pre-registration is required. Enter at the south downstairs door.

FCC exams for amateur radio licensing will be given on the afternoon of the 19th, at the end of class. There is a $15 administrative fee to take the FCC exam, which will be collected by the Volunteer Examination team at the time of the exam.


It is a neat skill to have, many are storm spotters, you have the ability to communicate when most every other form of communication is down. I am very interested in forming a ham radio team at MEMS.
There will be other classes, we just found out about these

Billy Day

Many have heard by now that Billy Day a former Paramedic with MEMS passed away this week. I wanted to pass along the funeral information:

Billy's Services: visitation is wed at 5:00 for family and 6:00 for friends; service is at 2:00 thurs; Vine st. Baptist church, 418 N. Vine Ave. Mt. View AR 72560; casual attire or work uniform/scrubs etc. Instead of flowers a healthcare scholarship fund has been started at Citizen's Bank in Batesville/Mt. View in Billy's memory.

Billy's life was too short, he will be missed.

I just wanted to stop and say, it has been busy, very busy lately. Many of you are working your shift and picking up extra shifts. Help is coming in the form of: a paramedic class that is about ready to test, a rookie class that just began, and 13 certified EMTs and Paramedics that will start orientation soon.

In the mean time know that your work is noticed, I cant describe the weight that comes with this job. I carry the thought of your welfare with me all the time.

Know I appreciate you very much.

I just had to tell you.

Greg

Mandatory Training

A reminder that October 15th is the last day to do your on line mandatory classes. If you miss the date you will have to attend an actual class. If you are a paramedic and miss the deadline for the new drug, you ant work.

Let training know if you have any issues

We are remodeling again

Just when you think we can’t make any more room, we find a way. You may have read in the monitor that Lee has been promoted to controller. This means that we need another office for his replacement. After looking around the property we decided on the following plan.
The supervisor will be in the 12X24 Morgan building on the west side of the building.
Tammy and Keith will move to the supervisor’s old office,
David Turner will move to Tammy’s old office,
We will wall up the West wall of Keith’s office, and make a new door on the east wall. This will be a new office for QA.
The new accountant will move into David’s old office.

The work started Friday with the moving of the smoking area awning. The new smoke area will be by the antenna on the west side of the building.
The ice machine shed will be torn down, and a new awning will be put up from the back door to the front door of the supervisor’s new office.
We trust this will give us the needed space until we can build a new building.

Rookie 17

Congratulations to rookie 17 for passing their national registry test with a 100% pass rate!

408

Many know by now that 408 was involved in a major MVA on March 10th. We are grateful that our crew sustained only minor injuries. After looking at the unit on scene, I said to Jon that this was the first box we have ever had totaled, I was wrong.... After Excellance looked at the unit, they reported that not only was it not totaled, but that is could be repaired without taking it off the chassis.

I continued to be amazed at the strength and quality of the equipment they produce. Many have see the picture of 223 that hangs in the hall by the break-room. This unit was hit head on on the 67/167 We cut our EMT out of the unit, (she sustained a broken arm) we found that all the doors still opened and the box was still square. Excellance bought that damaged unit from us to sit in their warehouse as a visible example to others of their strength.

I tell you this to say, we place the safety of our crews at the top of the list, especially when we buy ambulances. Days like the 10th tell me that for this purchase, we made a good decision.

MEMS on Facebook

We have started a MEMS page on Facebook. It give us a little more interactive way to communicate.

The Blog is back for 2011 !

As I look back we have not used this format to communicate with you for a while. I want to make sure that it gives the information that you may need to stay current at MEMS.

One change that you need to know about is the change to our Adenocard. The current packaging is expiring. As we started to order new we discovered that we were paying an increase of @85% for the style packaging that we had. By going to the vial we save thousands of dollars a year on a drug that normally expires before we ever use it. Please log on to the MEMS web site to see the video concerning the new packaging.
It is located under the employee access section under operations videos.

EPI NOTICE

As a result of the nationwide shortage of EPI 1:10,000 MEMS is going to temporarily change the way the medication is prepared and administered.. This will be in effect until the nationwide shortage has been relieved.

Each administered dose of Epi 1:10,000 will require the following:

1-amp of Epi 1:1,000, 1-10cc prefilled syringe & 1-18g needle


Step one: Dispense 1ml(cc) of Nacl from the 10ml prefilled syringe into a waste receptacle.

Step two: Affix the 18g needle to the prefilled syringe

Step three: Snap the top and remove from the amp of Epi 1:1,000

Step four: Draw up the 1 ml of Epi 1:1,000 into the prefilled syringe. This will result in a syringe of Epi 1:10,000 that is now ready to be administered. To help insure safety, you can discard the needle into the Bio/Sharps container once the 1ml of Epi 1:1,000 has been drawn into the prefilled syringe.


Again, this will be in place until the shortage of Epi 1:10,000 has been relieved.

Check out the video on METROEMS.org under training and then updates

Mike Kumpuris

It is with great sadness that I report Mike Kumpuris passed away Sunday July 18th at SVI. Mike is considered one of the founding fathers of MEMS. He will be greatly missed.....

Arrangments:
Griffin Leggett Forest Hills
Visitation: Tuesday July 20, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

Memorial service
Wednesday July 21, 10:00 AM

Link to Griffin Leggett