CSEPP
There were several MEMS staff involved in the CSEPP drill today. I had hoped to at least post a picture, maybe I will have one tomorrow. I heard good comments about our work at Barton. Stewart represented us very well as Pulaski OEM. Great job to all!!

BLS Lead Project
Thanks to Carrie and Ord and others we are very close to finishing our BLS lead policy and procedure. Be patient, it is close.

PTO
I know that PTO is a hot topic. Jay and I have talked about ways to address what we believe are some of the issues surrounding getting PTO.
Timely notice that you are getting the time or not is one of the main issues that we are trying to manage. Expect more to be written on this subject. I only mention it to let you know that Jay and I are aware it is an issue that needs a solution.

Drill Prep

955 came back from the shop today. Hopefully Foxtrot will come and bring 910 back to me ;-)

Drills
There are several drills in our future.
Today the CSEPP drill was held in Sheridan. We used the on duty truck in Sheridan and East End to accomplish this.
Tomorrow is the CSEPP exercise in Little Rock. We will have 7-9 crew members at Barton, and one at the Pulaski County OEM Building.

In March we will have a school drill in North Little Rock, (more on this one soon)
April we will have a full scale drill at the Little Rock Airport.

To prepare for these we have set aside some triage card drill days March 20-22.

We all understand the importance of staying prepared. Who knows when the next 1420, Tornado etc.. will strike. I will keep you posted on the upcoming preparations. In the mean time take a moment and read over the MCI plan. We are in the process of updating the master copy. If you see something that is not addressed or could be written better let me know.

Weekend Birthdays

Terra McDougald had her Birthday on Saturday.
Ronnie Ballard (no picture) along with Talitha Morrow (pictured right) had their Birthday on Sunday.
Happy Birthday Folks!!

Weekend Catch Up

Dumas

After the tornados Saturday in Dumas several calls went out for help from the news stations. Not trusting them I called EASI and asked them what they had heard. With radios and phones being down in the Dumas area, they didn't have a good idea, but said they were sending one truck to check it out. I then called the State Health Department and asked if Dumas was requesting mutual aid, they replied that ADEM was requesting help. Knowing that there would be no communications after we got there, I asked the on-duty supervisor to give me one truck, and I took 908. After getting there we discover that the local EMS had things under control. There was a lot of devastation, but fortunately there was no loss of life (as of this writing). And only about 20 treated for injuries at that point. We took the opportunity to visit a few EMS folks from around the state that we hadn't seen in a while. We then made our way back home. It was no more dramatic than that.

Units
130 came back from getting a new motor this morning. 318 left to gets it motor right after that. We hope to have the new 126 fully in service by the end of the week.

Just a thought

"It is not good for all our wishes to be filled; through sickness we recognize the value of health; through evil, the value of good; through hunger, the value of food; through exertion, the value of rest."

-Greek saying

A reminder about our threat status

They keep reporting that the weather Saturday will be rough. I wanted to remained you about our threat status plan.
Green= normal day to day with "normal" threats
Yellow= The heighten sense of awareness of a possible MCI or MCI threat. Examples include, severe weather, major events that have a high suspicion of terrorism such as the president in town or other major event. This status will be signaled by a "blast page" All employees are to be prepared to come in if call on. The Supervisor staff calls in and gives their availability for the following 24-48 hours (depends on the event) All units are checked and prepared to be put in immediate service, the shop does only necessary repairs to units. The generator is started and checked as well as several other items on a preplanned check list.
Red= all units are staff even if there are no patients yet. This allows us to spread the units in case of sever weather, or terrorist threats.

Of course there is much more but I wanted to remind you of the procedure. I hope that we don't have to use any of this for Saturday, but it don't hurt to be reminded. Keep save.

May you live all your life
Greg

A Hard Call

Not my typical Blog, but I got a note from Kenneth Sartin about a MVA in Sherwood Sunday. I am grateful that these kinds of calls don't happen everyday. I appreciate him pointing out the work of the other agencies.

There was a 41 on Sunday afternoon in Sherwood. Extrication took about an hour and 20 minutes. PT was pinned in car with flames until FD arrived. She remained conscious the whole time of being extricated. We Medflighted her out.

The Sherwood PD officer A. Hopkins was one of the first on scene, he was using an extinguisher to try to knock down the fire from the PT. He got a small burn on two of his fingers, nothing serious. Hopkins and some officers, unknown to me, were trying to pull her out away from the flames, before FD could get there. They kept some of the flames at bay with extinguishers from patrol cars until an attack line could be pulled from the fire engine.
Good job to Hopkins and the other Sherwood officers, as well as the FD for their work.
I also add good job to our crew!

I realize this is what you do everyday, and most days are not this dramatic, however you never know when that call will come. Stay Sharp.

Greg

A comment from Robert Darr

Hey Boss,

On the blog you said I kept the monitor on the patient. It may help to say I kept the 12 lead (or all 10 actual leads) on the patient.

It may help people to consider leaving the 12 lead on after they attach it in case something changes. Some crews believe that after they do a 12 lead they should just take it off if they do not find anything. Since that is the way they do it at the hospitals.

Even a short transport in the city or a longer one from an outlying you never know when something will change and you may want to do another 12 lead. Especially if the initial 12 lead was done prior to the actual infarction stage of the MI or if they have a dramatic rhythm change like I did. It also helps during a longer transport to do repetitive 12 leads on MI patients to monitor MI progression. It actually helps in determining survivability in the long run.

Besides I have a reputation (whatever kind it may be) to protect. I don't want people think I am taking the monitor off completely after I do a 12 lead. LOL

Thanks for the clarification Robert!
Greg

A note from Louis about SPO2

Hey Greg, here is a quick note that pertains to our discussion of a couple of days ago. As ya’ll know, we’ve had continuous problems with the SPO2 on the new LP12. The problem is not that the unit (LP12) is failing, but the SPO2 cable is failing. Reason: The connection between the extension cable and the SPO2 probe is a “paddle” style connection. Per Medtronic, this was a bad design (no kidding); their solution is to change the connection site to a pin design> The design change has taken place, and the cable is available for sale now.

However, MEMS still has issues/problems w/ the new SPO2 cables

1). The Cost for just the probe is $300.00 /w no warranty

2). We don’t have a reliable probe from pediatrics, neonates and some elderly patients

Solution: Purchase the a extension cable that will allow MEMS is use the new LP12 w/ the old style SPO2 finger probe

Gain: The cost of the new cable is the same as existing extension cable.

1). The cost for the old style SPO2 finger probe is only $110.00 w/ a 6 month warranty w/ free exchange.

2). Fewer failures at a result of SPO2 issues.

3). We’ll be able to use the disposable pedi SPO2 probes with new extension cable.

4). Cost saving of $190.00 for each probe, that is a nice saving per probe.

Tks, louis

A comment from Ord

Greg
The other thing about the new monitors is that each new LP12 is assigned to a unit. This assignment is written on the board in Sierra's office and when you print with the LP12, it will tell you which truck it belongs on; ie 56-11 will print MEMS 420.

Good catch John!
Greg

STEMI and Monitor Parts

First STEMI sent via cell phone to UAMS last night by Medics Tom Ford and Richard Kirchner. The crew responded to a chest pain call. They carried in their monitor and correctly identified a STEMI. Their scene time was 10 minutes, after transport to the ER the patient went from door of ER to Cath lab 11 minutes! Total time from onset to Cath Lab was 1 hour and 3 minutes. Patient got 2 STINTS and will probably go home on Wednesday.

Steven Davis ran on a STEMI this morning. Again carried in his equipment, correctly identified the problem. Was near BMMC so he called them and related the problem. The Staff at Baptist Spring Hill was waiting for the crew. This early call caused the PT to go to the CATH Lab a lot faster. PT got 2 STINTS and should be released soon.

Robert Darr had a C/P patient that he kept the monitor on. The patient developed V-Tach in front of him. He was able to capture this event as well as the following NSR rhythm after Lidocaine.

These are great saves that have a few things in common.
1. The crews had their equipment with them. (all of it, no missing parts)
2. The crew did a great job at recognizing the problem and getting the necessary treatment and notifications made.


Monitor Equipment
Several years ago I was on a cardiac arrest at a biker bar. When we went to shock the patient the monitor would not shock. We were lucky and was able to get another truck to come by with its monitor by the time we made it out to our ambulance. This is one of the reasons that MEMS spends the extra money to give you a back up plan on the cardiac monitor. You have hands free and paddles. However we are finding that many crews are taking off the paddles. May I remind you,
1. They are a back up to the hands free.
2. They cost 300.00 each
3. Laying them on the shelf causes them to become scratched. If scratched bad enough, they are ruined.

Remedy- Always carry all parts of your monitor with you. We cannot, and must not allow the paddles to be taken off. We must also make sure that all parts of the 12 lead are accounted for.
To my utter amazement, several of the trucks are missing the v leads to the monitor. Why and How???
Please help me stay after this problem. As soon as you notice missing equipment report it!! We want to continue to have great success stories like the ones above.

Greg

Monday February 19th 2007

BLS Leads
We are in the process of do some final touches on the BLS lead program. It will included things such as, how to become one, training involved etc...

Did you know
I ran across an interesting article about securing your home. Thought you might find it interesting. Every heard of "bumping a lock"?

Lock Article

Caring

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around."

-Leo Buscaglia

February 17th Birthdays

Happy Birthday to Harold Shray and Paul Van Dyke !!

Awards Committee (by Ken Ekenseair)

Awards Committee

Recently as one of my added duties as an operations supervisor I have been tasked by Greg to head up the Awards Committee. We have in the past had this, but it has faded away for various reasons. In January of 2007 I accumulated a list of people that had an interest in serving on this committee. The response was great however I am limited to having only a limited number of staff on it. I have gotten with Greg and with him selected the current members for various talents they have.

* Richard Dearing EMT - Richard is a very hard working EMT and is very goal tasked. He also has good computer skill which will help in the tracking and organization of the committee.

* Clay Branham Paramedic - Big Clay …. Well enough said! Really Clay is the guy I can count on to get the word out. He is a positive person and is well respected.

* Jannie Brown Paramedic – Jannie “Bug” Brown well she is a approachable person, well liked and very organized. She has many skills in organization and she serves on the Honor Guard and from my knowledge has served well on it.

* B. Cook EMT/Dispatcher – Barry is my Dispatch connection. He can provide a different view other than a street view. He also has many, many, many years here at MEMS. His vast knowledge of MEMS and its History will be a great asset. He also is at Sta. 1 and he will be very accessible to others.

*T. Ford Paramedic – Tom has been at MEMS for several years and he has past experience with Law Enforcement and Fire. He will be beneficial in other aspects awarding Fire, and Law Enforcement with awards we might honor them with.

* J. Branham Paramedic - Jalana is the medic everybody can talk too. She always has a smile and projects a positive view on most things. I look to her to beef up and get the crews on board with this project.

* Tim Huelett - Tim is our Lay Person to give the committee a broader look at what we are seeing. For Medics some things are small to us, but for someone who does not work in the field small things to them can mean more.

Know what does this all mean?

Our work environment evolves around praise and criticism. Both are important on how we develop into who we are at work. We have employees who always are up for another call, never ever complain and are happy with what they have. Me, I am not one of these people….. I like many others rely on positive feedback, and criticism. I use to let the criticism bother me, eat at me, and make me always negative. However with age and some life changes I take that now and learn from it. People criticize for a reason. It sure does feel good to get a pat on the back or some form of recognition that we can outwardly show that we have done a good job. Some awards are like battle scars of what we have done while at the company. For me the AA 1420 Crash, the Katrina Ribbon to me are proud battle scars for me, and a part of MEMS history.

What is the goal of the Awards Committee? We want to ensure the employees and others have a way to submit fellow employees or others for awards and even just a pat on the back. We will also look at by standers that have done the heroic or provided a compassionate moment to one of our patients. Your involvement is crucial to the success of this. As you see things or hear things, bring it to one of the committee members attention. Our job is to gather the info, confirm, it and figure out what is the best way to award this person. More information will be available after we have our first meeting within the next couple of weeks.

Kenneth Ekenseair

New Field Supervisors

In my job two of the hardest things I do are, terminate people and promote people. As you know 24 people applied for the position of Field Supervisor. This was a very strong group of canditates. They were tested, interviewed, analyzed etc..









The four chosen are : Angela Bain. Janie Brown, Clay Branham and Chris Coleman. They will officially be grated rank of Captian in March after their training. Please help me congratulate them.

Greg

Two Valentines Birthday's

Happy Birthday to Debbie Marquis and Steven Davidson !

Just normal stuff...

126
The new 126 made it home last evening, it should have it's MEMS markings by Monday. Probably be 1 1/2 weeks before it is in service.

Supervisor Update
I am working away on the Field Supervisor list. I have had a little set back, a friend's father passed away and I am doing his funeral tomorrow. I have had to stop and spend time away with his family, but still hope to be finished so I can announce tomorrow after the funeral.

"May you live all your life"
Greg

Meeting Day

The supervisors met today from 07:00 - 13:00 to discuss the 24 applicants for Field Supervisor. The plan is to announce Thursday. Stay tuned!

Hit and Run
The last day of being in service 509 was involved in a hit and run. I understand from Angela Bain, that Vance Peacock did a great job of avoiding a head on colission, when a young driver fish tailed and hit the box or their ambulance. The other driver kept going, but thanks to some fine detective work by none other than our own Major Ekenseair, the car that hit us was found last night. When Ken and the PD went to the drivers home, he confessed to hitting "something" that just happened to be us. Great work on all parts!

509
509 left this morning, the new unit will be home tonight or early tomorrow.

Greg

Shop Stuff

As most know 136 was involved in an MVA Friday night. The crew is OK, the unit doesn't look real bad, but has a lot of mechanical front end damage.
I always say, we can fix metal easier than we can fix you. Please let me remind you again, BE CAREFUL!
Clearing intersections, and anticipating the other drivers move, as well as making sure that you use that spotter button (every time) are a few of the ways to reduce our chances of a wreck. In the words of that old show Hill Street Blues, "Be careful out there"!

Change in plans
Ford is not going to be making any new E-350 for a while. It has a lot to do with the 6liter motor that we are having so much trouble with. In fact there is a class action law suit in the ambulance industry against Ford over the 6liter problem. We are going to try to get a little more miles out of the 7liters and up the miles on the 6liters where possible. All this means right now is that 318 will get a new motor, and 509 will be remounted. (dizzy yet) In the end it will all work out. 509 leaves at 5AM tomorrow and the new unit comes home.

New Unit
The new arriving unit will be numbered 126, and the old 126 will now be 73. This keeps the trucks grouped right.

Greg

Birthdays

Robert Berryman had his birthday on Sunday the 11Th.

Michael Grimes birthday is today the 12th.

Happy birthday guys!!

Debt Class and New Hires

Class
I have had a lot of people ask me about the Debt Reduction class that was cancelled due to weather. I am currently working with the IT department to put it on DVD and give it away with the handouts. So, please be patient it is coming.

New Hires
We recently completed a week of interviews.
We hired 2 fulltime Emts (one will start out on the wheelchair vans)
3 PRN Emts
2 for Communications
There orientation class will start Fberuary 26th.

Greg

Update on Perry

I have had a few ask about Perry. He is doing much better. He is spending a lot of time at the central station in Conway. It is hard to keep him still, he is suppose to not be bearing weight but some times we find him a little hard headed. Tonight he was being a part of a ham radio disaster drill at the station. Perry says hi and thanks for asking about him.

Greg

Did You Know?

For those of you pre-planning for Valentines day:

While red roses remain the most popular choice on Valentine’s Day, there is an accepted color guide to help you select the right flower to give to your partner, friend or family member.

• RED ROSE: Red roses are a powerful and dramatic expression of love, ideally suited for your loved one.
• WHITE ROSE: White roses represent innocence, purity and young love, making them appropriate for a new relationship.
• YELLOW ROSE: Yellow roses are symbolic of joy and friendship. They are appropriate to send to a dear friend or family member.
• PINK ROSE: Pink roses represent elegance and femininity, and can be sent to a wife, girlfriend or female friend.
• ORANGE ROSE: Orange roses are symbolic of enthusiasm and desire. They can be used to express interest and attraction without the dramatic overtones commonly associated with red roses.

Didn't think I knew stuff like this did ya ;-)

Greg

Wednesday February 7th

Today is Ashley Johnson's and Joe Fluech's birthday!

We did decide that it will 318 not 509 that will be remounted. It should leave next week.

I am working on a way to put a copy of the calender on here, Turner is working with me, we will see what we can do. In the mean time Ralph is rebuilding the MEMS web site. The work he has already done looks and feels different from the current site. I will keep you posted on the progress.

There will be a CSEPP exercise February the 28th at Barton Coliseum. The SORT team is preparing to be a part of the drill.

Tomorrow we have a river Rescue Meeting. Just a reminder to everyone that when you have a rescue on the river the channel we use to communicate with the other responding agencies is AG Common 2.

Greg

Just another day in the Shop

Shop stuff

Some may not know, but we have two units getting new/different motors. It seems there is a PH problem with our antifreeze that has caused corrosion and pitting on some of the internal engine parts. (that is a PH strip laying in front of the housing) We are checking all the units, so don't be surprised to be called in. We believe we have found a way to get our hands around this issue.

130 is at the garage getting a new rebuild motor.
402 is getting the old motor from 403 (this motor had low miles, it was remounted due to the famous Ford frame cracks)

In the mean time 318 may go instead of 509 due to another possible motor failure.

We will probably wait to get 139 until next week.

We believe that we have caught the issue early enough, and for once the 6-liters engines don't seem to be in jeopardy (but the jury is still out)
In the mean time, when you notice something out of the norm with your ambulance, let the shop know. We have seen a few times when reports of problems are not being reported until the end of shift, this could cause a major issue, so report early!

Field Supervisors
I finished the interviews yesterday. I still plan to finish the rest of the process and make the final announcements February 15th.

more later...




Greg

Monday February 5 2007

Thanks for the notes about the Blog!

Birthdays
There were a few Birthdays since Friday, Allan Falcone, Mike Bradford, Charlean Patterson, Lee Harper and today Tony McSpadden. Happy Birthday guys!

New Unit
Just got a call that the brand new ambulance that Excellance built for us is ready to be picked up this week. We will decided today which unit will go to be remounted (probably 509)

BLS Leads
Several are asking about how to become a BLS lead. We are working on the whole BLS process. Carrie has helped (along with several others) develop a BLS protocol package. We are working now on the qualifications, and a check off form for those chosen.

Field Supervisors
I have only two left to interview for the Field Supervisor position. The plan is to make the announcement by February 15th. So far some really good candidates.
Greg

MEMS now has a blog!!

I thought I would start this blog out with a bang (thanks to Harold) Thursday February 1st while working an accident on I-40 an 18 wheeler jackknifed and slid into the rear of 955. Thankfully they were not in the truck when it was hit, so once again Foxtrot is in 910.

I have watched from my office while a good deal of you log on to the computer in the supply room. I have seen a ton of you checking your e-mail and my space accounts. I thought a Blog might be a way that I could give out information and snapshots of the day. I will test this for a bit to see how it goes, let me know what you think.

Greg