Hi from Jay and Susan

Hey gang!

Just a quick note and some pictures. Here are some pictures of the third snow we have had this December. This is about 5" and the largest to date. This fell Friday night. Saturday was pretty pleasant, with the temperatures in the upper 20's. Sunday and Monday never reached double digits! Damn cold !! Tuesday it is back to the upper 20's with a chance for more snow this afternoon and evening.

We hope that everyone is happy and healthy and prepared for a wonderful holiday season. My dad and sister are coming out the week after Christmas and we are looking forward to seeing them. We are always ready for other visitors to come say howdy !!! and we are only an hour from one of the ski resorts!

Happy Holidays to you all

We miss you!

Link to pictures

Jay , Susan, Logna, and Dylan Stype

Christmas Party

Remember the MEMS Christmas party and awards banquet this Friday Night. This is open to MEMS Employees and their mates. This year we will be having it at the Holiday Inn Airport on December 5 2008.

Happy hour is from 18:00 – 19:00 with dinner and awards starting at 19:00.

The Husqvarna (Husky) Makes it First Event

Some of you have seen the new Husqvarna that was purchased to take the place of the old “Mac Cart”. It was purchased with a grant from Fire House Subs for a cost of @ $17,000.

Friday at the Miracle on Markham the Husky did it’s job without a hitch.

The Gator will be moved to Conway where it will be stored in ready to respond mode. For large events such as the State Fair, Razorback games etc. you will probably see both in use. We are currently looking at what we will do with the old MAC Cart.






I wonder if it is what brought us luck???

Biggest Turkey Fryer in Town!

This monster is owned by Clay Brannon


Another Thanksgiving has come and gone. I want to say thank you to the Lee family for their work in feeding all the metro crews. David came in on his day off, and brought along his wife, father and his girlfriend to do the cooking for everyone on duty.

In Conway, Major Ekenseair started cooking the day before and handed the final preparations off to Major Tabor who along with the Faulkner County crews on duty put together an excellent meal.

Buying the food, preparing the meal, getting the crews by takes a lot of coordination and effort to pull off. I am grateful for everyone who does it with such a sense of servant hood and graciousness.
Thank You!

More on 228

Getting closer

update on 128

We don't often show the status of our remounts. This is the phase that 128 (soon to be 228) is currently in. We don't have a firm return date yet, but believe it will be before 2009.

New Safety Vest

As of November 24, 2008 Federal law requires that a safety vest be worn by, “All response and support activities that occur on the roadways that facilitate the movement of traffic”.

Simply said if you are on a street of any kind Federal Law says you must be wearing your safety vest, day or night.

We are issuing each employee his or her own personal safety vest, however the order is on back order. To meet the deadline, we are placing two vests in each unit satchel. Additional vest can be acquired for any third riders by going through the normal inventory process (i.e. the cage)

When the bulk order comes in you will be issued your personal vest. See Policy #518 for complete details.

Welcome Tim

You may have seen a new guy around the shop. Tim Bissell recently joined Bobo and Kevin. Tim comes to us after working for a Ford dealership as well as owning his own shop for a few years. When you get a chance stop by and say hi.

Congratulations Tate Hamm

Tate Hamm was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant this week. With this new rank he will also be taking over the bike team form Stan Neal who has stepped down for personal reasons. When you see Tate congratulate him.

Red Cross Hero Awards

On Wednesday of this week Corey Burns, Fred Sterling and Alan Falcone were honored at the annual Red Cross Hero Banquet. They received this honor for the successful resuscitation of 18-month-old Caleb Gore who wandered into a pond and was found code blue. They all will be the first to say that they were just doing their job, and while that is true to some extent, it is good that some of our peers were honored for a job well done. Caleb was also at the event and was carried by Fred to the stage as they received their award. Congratulations!

Christmas party

It is that time for the annual MEMS Christmas party and awards banquet. This is open to MEMS Employees and their mates. This year we will be having it at the Holiday Inn Airport on December 5 2008.
Happy hour is from 18:00 – 19:00 with dinner and awards starting at 19:00.

Annual Awards

It is that time of year to make nominations for Paramedic, EMT, Rookie, Employee and, PRN of the Year. This year the rules are:

Any employee may be nominated for the appropriate category
Attention should be paid to employees that have gone “above and beyond” during the year
Nominee must be in good standing
Medic is defined as Paramedic
EMT is defined as EMT
Employee is defined as any full time employee who does not work as an EMT or Paramedic. (Salary/management staff are not eligible)
Rookie is defined as a Paramedic or EMT hired between October 1 2007 and October 01 2008. (See list)
Dispatcher is defined as any PRN or fulltime dispatcher.
PRN is defined as any EMT or Paramedic that has met the minimum number of hours (260 per year) to be compliant with our PRN policy. (See list)
Nominations will be taken from all staff with final selection from the top three made by management.

Deadline is Noon November 7 2008

ONE nomination vote per employee PLEASE


Ballots available at:
Station one supply room, or at Conway Central Station.

New Secondary Airway

The health department has mandated that EMS services carry a secondary airway.

We are now introducing this device into our protocol. This device will be the King Airway and will be considered the secondary airway of choice at MEMS. Included in your packet you will find the updated protocols to support these changes, MIF information, as well literature written on the King Airway.

This is mandatory training required for all paramedics that must be completed prior to using this new airway. There is a 6 minute training video available at http://www.medic.metroems.org/ If you are new to the medic site please register and then log on to view the video. Available for check out are DVD / CD from your supervisor or please see the Echo on duty. We will also be placing DVD/CD at each outlying station. Also included in your packet is a 10 question exam that must be completed and turned into the on-duty supervisor, Echo (C. Spychalski or C. Goddard) or Foxtrot in order to receive credit for this training. The deadline to complete and turn in exam is October 31, 2008. The exam must be turned in by this day or you will be ineligible to work until training is complete. You can also fax your completed test to 301-1485.

If you have any questions regarding this new device please contact Captain Janelle Johnson in training 301-1464.

Inventory and North Pulaski

Inventory
Inventory system is up and running. I want to remind you to be sure that you check you satchel at the start and end of your shift, as well as complete a start of shift check sheet. This is mandatory. We have found some mistakes, and after tracing them down discovered they were simply matters of just not checking your equipment. We are also in the process of majoring all the Thomas packs and tagging them. We are still tweaking the system, if you have ideas that make is smother or faster, we are all ears.
We will start remodeling the old supply room the week of September 29th. This new office will house the Staff Captains. Currently they have no “home” and have been working on projects such as inventory, Moving of North Pulaski Station, Health department Inspection etc..

North Pulaski
Speaking of North Pulaski, we have moved the trailer that started out in Sheridan, moved to station one and now resides in North Pulaski. It was moved to the North Pulaski Fire Station behind the current NP Station. We received permission from the Fire Department to share their land. We are in the process of getting a septic tank, porch, under pinning etc.. We do not yet have a move in date.

Returning units

Thursday September 25, 2008 units 522 and 507 will be coming home from Excellance. Unit 128 will be sent for remount. Unit 522 will have a diesel run, on board generator with a roof mount A/C system. This is an experiential system for us. We are trying to find ways to improve fuel efficiency as well as ways to better cool the units, reduce idle time etc.. It will look a little different, but we hope it meets the above needs.

Condition Green

I think that we finally finished up from the hurricane.;-) It seems that getting patients here is a lot easier than getting them home. Thank you to everyone who worked so patiently through out this whole process.

Currently in Condition Yellow

We move to Condition RED Saturday prior to the first plane into Little Rock. Again I remind you condition RED is a mandatory call in (check in for availability) of all off duty crews. This AM we moved back to condition Yellow due to the potential of several weather in Arkansas from Hurricane Gustuv. (Yellow be alert and ready to come in)

WOW!!

This is Tuesday already; I wanted to give you an update on the weekend. We started off Saturday at 10AM at MEMS getting ready to receive patients at noon. The first plane did not come till late that evening which meant a lot of tiring waiting. When they did start coming it got busy. The preliminary totals are.
13 aircraft were received
233 patients were off loaded, triaged and transported to local hospitals

The following is an excerpt from Rex Oxner IC of the event for VA/NDMS

This was a massive operation. Probably larger than anything seen during Katrina/Rita and certainly the largest reception activity ever completed over such a short time.
A simple “Thank You” to all of those who helped to make this operation a success seems inadequate but I hope that it is enough that you know what a great job you all did and how much your dedication meant to the success of this endeavor.

Thank You
Rex

J. Rex Oxner, MHA
Area Emergency Manager
Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System

I add my thank you to this staff, I have said of events like this in the past, most days we are called to help people, sometimes we are called to help cities. Until later, Thank you, Thank you.

Greg

Condition Yellow!

Reminding you that MEMS is in condition yellow in preparation for possible evacuation of area hospitals in New Orleans.

Condition yellow means, among many things, that all units are prepared for immediate deployment and staff is notified to be ready to come in immediately. Condition Red means that there is a mandatory call back of all employees. If condition red is called, staffing will be set up so that we can sustain an extended response with not only the event, but also normal 911 and day-to-day operations. The goal is to staff up without burning everyone out.

As of now, we do not know if we will be activated, how many patients to expect etc.. We did succeed in getting the reception site moved to Central flying instead of Jacksonville Air Force.
I know that this is a Holiday weekend, however this is what we do for living, respond to patients, and in this case cities in need.

September 2 Inventory Changes

You have been hearing for several weeks about the up coming inventory control changes. Here is a brief over view of the system.

Why the change?
· In the face of rising cost a more accurate inventory is a must.
· Have you ever gotten into a truck and not had the proper radio, map, Thomas pack or phone for your EKG monitor. This new system will track those as well as other must have items.
· The main point is we can better track and control the items that you need in a more efficient manner.

How does station one work?
· You will come into work and report to the east hall and enter the supply area. There you will find Louis or one of the Oscar staff.
· You will give them your unit that you are assigned for the day, and they will check out to you the following. (Known as assets)
o Satchel with your radios, unit and drug keys, maps, binoculars, fuel card and fob as well as a “quick look” book that has many need to know facts such as hundred blocks, latest dialysis patient info, 12 lead cheat sheet etc…
o Monitor with your attached phone and cables, batteries, paddles
o Thomas pack with glucose monitor, laryngoscope, BVM etc…
· At the end of your shift you will bring back the items that you were issued to be checked back in. They will be inspected to make sure that all that was sent out comes back.
· You will also turn in your supply list form the day’s shift. Your list will be pulled from stock by the Oscar staff; it will then be your responsibility to restock your unit.

What about outlying station supplies?
Each outlying station that is not in Faulkner County will have a supply area that will be locked for use by the assigned crew only. The key will be on the assigned units drug key ring. The station will have a predetermined inventory amount. Whenever the crew uses a supply they will pull it from the stock and record the usage in the stock order book. The Oscar staff will work with the station lead to maintain the appropriate stock levels.

What about outlying station monitors, satchel etc ?
At each shift change the crew must do a start of shift check off sheet to account for everything the satchel is suppose to have. In addition you must account for the monitor and Thomas pack. We understand that this is the weakest part of this system so it is imperative, in fact a requirement that you inspect and fax in you start of shift check off sheet. If an item is missing during after your shift you will be held responsible. When a unit is brought in for maintenance, or reassigned to metro, the assets will be checked back in to supply.

What about Faulkner County?
Conway and Faulkner County units will be handled by the Foxtrot staff. All Faulkner County units will be restocked form Conway Central.
I am sure we will make some changes as we go along in an effort to make it as user friendly as possible.

Unit Moves Coming

What’s up?
Our budget process allows for MEMS to remount 6 trucks a year. With us having 36 units this means that each truck should be 6 years old and have @ 250,000 miles at the end of its life. To accomplish this feat, it is important that we pay attention to how many miles each unit is getting on a regular basis.

Example
· The company average is 3155 miles per month
· 519 has been averaging 6826 miles per month and at its current rate it would have to be remounted in 2009 instead of the scheduled 2012

In the past we had our hands around this process pretty well, but with the recent strike of the company that makes the axles for our units, we have not been able to get new chassis and because of this have not been able to do the needed remounts this year. In addition, the 6 liter engine problem that Ford was having, had kept so many units down that we have had to keep moving our units just to have enough that were not in the shop on the street.


Our Plan
Beginning in September we will do our best to move the units in the fleet to better balance the mileage and get us back on our remount schedule. This means that as many as 12 units will have to change shifts.
We have already been going through the fleet making “punch” lists for each truck of items that are in need of repair such as seats, dents, scratches, grills etc…

We have ordered several new seat covers, grills and bumper covers to make the needed repairs. In addition we have already painted unit 180, 133 and will soon be painting 130 to get them back to the condition that a company like MEMS expects. We have contacted our decal company and have given them a list of the units whose stripes are peeling, fading or cracking and have them scheduled for repair and replacement.

Lets face it, our fleet does not look as good as it should, this is a problem that we all can address. I am asking for your help with this move, as well as this new emphasis on a cleaner better shape fleet.

We will continue to monitor the mileages and will make smaller changes during the year.
If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to call.

Greg

Congratulations Janelle!!

As you may have heard Janelle Johnson was chosen as the 2008 Arkansas EMS instructor of the year! Janelle, we are very proud of you!!

;-)

"Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing!"

100% Pass!!

100% of the MEMS/UAMS Paramedic class #6 passed their national test on the first try. This brings 8 new Medics to the streets.




We are very glad since they already had a back up plan going ;-)

Congratulations, you all set the bar high!

MEMS will have a team in the Koman Race for the Cure once again this year. This is the 15 year the race has been in Arkansas and MEMS a partner of the team for most of that time.
If you would like to sign up for the race and be a part of the MEMS team you can go to www.komenarkansas.org
to do so. Our team # is 50390 our team name is MEMS. The race date is October 11 2008. You may also register using the traditional paper forms that are found at station one. They must be turned in no later than September 9th by 5PM.

MEMS always has a team shirt, we are now taking ideas. Some of the do's and dont's for the team shirt are displayed by the time clocks at station one.

We are also asking for any man who is interested in being a part of the 3 miles of men to register also.

If you have any questions please contact Jocelyn or Gwen.

511 Polo Shirts

Addition of new uniform polo shirts

As most of you know, we have been looking at adding the 5.11 polo shirt as part of the approved uniform. The 5.11 will be approved as part of the uniform affective August 1, 2008.

However, here are a couple points that need to be made.

Up Side:
1. The 5.11 does have a slot on the left sleeve for pen placement
2. There is an option for lapel mic slot on shoulder

Down Side
1. The 5.11 is a little heavier shirt and the existing polo shirt
2. The cost of the 5.11 will be slightly higher. (On average shirt will be about $10.00 more)
3. The polo shirts will not inventoried at Trivia Marketing
4. You’ll need to order through Louis, then your order will go to trivia for
embroidery, so plan for a 2-3 week lead time

If you have any questions, see Louis.

FYI- It's Inspection Time

It is time for our annual health department unit inspections. They will start @ July 29th. And go through the end of August. Please make sure that your unit is ready, and remember that per the rules and regulations you should have your certification card on you while on duty.

Greg

New Lieutenant

As you all know several changes are now talking place in the area of inventory and asset control. Here are two:

1. Louis Moore will now have the two Oscar positions answering to him. He will be responsible to help manage their time/work load, will do their evaluations etc. In Louis's absence they will answer to the on duty Supervisor.

2. Louis has been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. His call sign is Lima 1


Congratulations Louis !

New Supply System coming!

If you have been at station one lately, you have noticed that there is construction going on in the East hall. We hope to have the new supply system up and running in the next two weeks. The focus is on accountability, more to follow…..

New DiphenhydrAMINE packaging

We are no longer able to get Benadryl in the box packaging that we are accustomed to. The new packaging will be in a vial that will have to be drawn up before administration. The dose did not change only the packaging. Please make yourself familiar with this change.

Greg

New Staff Captains

We have added a position of Staff Captain. They will work with me on a daily basis on special projects such as, annual licensing of the fleet (due in August), rebuilding the evaluation process etc.. They will also work to take some of the administration load off the daytime supervisor allowing them more time in the field.
It is part of an initiative that we are working to allow for more proactive vs. reactive work.

Chris Spychalski and Clayton Goddard will be sharing this new role. They will alternate working two days on an ambulance and two days in the office.

New Shop Employee

We want to welcome Tommy Hood to MEMS. Tommy comes to us from South West Hospital where he worked as an ambassador. Many have commented on Tommy’s positive attitude and infectious smile. He has already gotten the shop cleaner and more organized than it has been in a long time. (Kevin and Bobo have been swamped)
When you see him stop in and say HI.

Some changes in the works.

1. Ron Spychalski is now in the QA department. He will be working with Stewart on getting our dispatch accredited, as well as helping to develop training modules etc.. he is sharing a newly furnished office with Mack and Phyllis.

2. We have been given the permission to hire an Admin Supervisor. The goal of this position is to take some of the load of the day sierra so they can spend more time in the field interacting with crews, hospitals etc.. This will be a Captain position that will handled such things as, unit assignments, complaints, keys etc.. We are currently working out the details, and will be posting the position as soon as next week.

3. The Supervisor’s truck was budgeted to be replaced in 2008. The new truck was ordered last week. It is a ¾ ton Chevrolet 4X4, extended cab with a long bed like 955. It will take a little time to get it in, and configured. The old 954 will be used for pulling the command trailers, MCIs, SORT, as well as a back up supervisor vehicle.

4. We are building a plan to handle our supplies better. We are working on a system that tracks our assets such as handhelds, monitors, fuel cards etc.. more efficiently. You will be hearing more on this very soon.

MEMS Picnic

The annual MEMS Picnic will be this Saturday June 7th at the Elks Park off of Crystal Hill

Registeration for the horseshoe tournament will be at 11AM with tournament to start at 12:00 entry is $5.00 per person.

Barbeque to be ready at 1:30.

Directions

Bring the kids and come on out!!

MEMS Golf 2008

The annual MEMS Golf tournament was held on May 14th. The director of this event, Louis Moore gives the following report of the days activities:

Total entries 28
Winners for the 2008 duffer’s cup. Robert Darr & Darrell Feagan
No deaths reported again this year, even though Bobby Blasingame had a small accident on his way to the tournament


Thank you Louis for that informative report ;-)

Link to pictures

New collars coming!!

As of Thursday June 5 2008 MEMS will move to the Ambu Perfit ACE (adjustable collar extrication) c-collar

We have chosen this move for several reasons: cost, ease of use, inventory, guaranteed fit, to name a few.

If you have not been in-serviced see either a supervisor or the training department. All 'old' style collars will be removed from the units as well as inventory and shipped back for credit after this week.

Copter crashes at Grand Rapids hospital

GRAND RAPIDS -- A medical helicopter crashed on the roof of a hospital Thursday, catching fire moments after the two people onboard escaped with minor injuries, a fire official said.

The pilot, a Vietnam veteran, and the passenger were listed in stable condition at the hospital, said Richard Breon, president and CEO of Spectrum Health.

No patients were onboard the helicopter, which crashed around 11 a.m. on a helipad atop Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital.

The chopper landed on its side and the two people onboard got out before it caught on fire, Grand Rapids Fire Chief John VanSolkema said at an afternoon news conference.

"There's not a whole lot left, but you can tell it was a helicopter," VanSolkema said.

Crash debris was found near the hospital, but there were no reports of injuries or damage on the ground.

Patients were temporarily evacuated to other buildings on the Spectrum Health campus.

"We basically believe it was practicing approaches," said Elizabeth Isham Cory, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Chicago. The FAA was investigating and the National Transportation Safety Board may investigate, Cory said.

All surgeries at the hospital temporarily were canceled, but were expected to resume later Thursday, said spokesman Bruce Rossman. Patients were evacuated from several floors of the hospital, but were returned to their rooms later in the day. None were injured, Rossman said.

Patients awaiting discharge were being held on the first floor of the hospital until roads leading to the facility were reopened to traffic other than emergency vehicles, he said.

A backup generator restored electricity, which went out after the Aero Med helicopter crash.

Kelli Wiltjer, a student aide in a Drug Enforcement Administration office nearby, said she looked out the window as the crash happened.

"The nose of the helicopter was kind of up and it almost looked like it was turning around, and then it dropped real fast," she said.

"Pieces were flying in the air" after the impact, said Wiltjer, 23.

Another witness was watching from her office in the nearby College of Nursing at Grand Valley State University, when she saw the helicopter come in from the south.

"We were standing here at the window ... and about five minutes later, we saw the black smoke," said Cheryl Borgman, 58, of Grand Rapids. "It was just a big huge billow of black smoke."

American Red Cross spokeswoman Caroline Clunk said Red Cross volunteers were setting up canteens on the scene to assist any evacuees, firefighters and other rescue workers.

Spectrum Health Butterworth, located in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids, is part of the largest campus of Spectrum Health, which is a nonprofit health care system based in western Michigan.

Butterworth Hospital is the only Level 1 Trauma Center in western Michigan. The hospital's emergency room was closed as a result of Thursday's crash, and patients in need of emergency medical treatment were sent to other area hospitals.

Associated Press writers Ben Leubsdorf, David Runk and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report

North Little Rock Truck changes

It is no secret that the North Side units are running more calls that we would normally expect from a 24-hour shift, but are being paid as regular 24 hour shifts. We have decided that starting Saturday May 17, 2008 until the 1st of October North Side units will be paid as follows:

· 12 hour city pay with no shift differential
· OT done at these shifts will be at normal OT rates.

During September we will again look at the workload, and determine how we will handle the next quarter.

I understand that Sherwood has been caught up in the North Side calls; we will monitor Sherwood’s calls and posts to determine if a change is needed there also.

BLS Changes

We all understand that BLS trucks take a tremendous load off the system. I have looked at several ways to make them more appealing for people to chose them for over time.

Starting this week all BLS trucks are “sprint” cars on an 8-hour schedule. For those unfamiliar with the term sprint it simply means that once a predetermined number of runs are met prior to the shifts normal ES, the crew is paid for the full shift and are allowed to go home.

Our BLS units will be 8-hour shifts with a 6-run sprint.
The shift times are:
· Monday, Wednesday Friday- 07:30-15:30, 10:00-18:00, 12:00-20:00
· Tuesday, Thursday- 07:30-15:30, 09:00-17:00, 10:00-18:00
· Monday-Friday- 18:00-02:00
· Saturday- 10:00-18:00
· Monday-Friday- 05:30-15:30 This unit is a 10-hour that is used for training and can sprint with 8 calls

A few of the questions that have been asked:

Q. What if I am pulled from my AlS truck to sprint?
A. Once you assigned to the BLS truck you are sprinting. The example I am giving is;
You have already worked 2 hours on your ALS, you are moved to he BLS and know out 6 calls in 6 hours. You will have a total of 10 hours. (even tho you have only worked 8 total) You may be required to stay until the end of your shift, or be allowed to take PTO for the remaining 4 hours to make your 14 hour shift. If your are put back on ALS and asked to say till your normal ES time, you will have earned 16 hours for a 14 hour day.

Q. Do out of town calls count for more than one call?
A. We will have a mileage radius grid in dispatch to determine if a call meets the requirements of counting for two.

We will continue to monitor this program, and make changes as necessary.

Congratulations Brandy!

On Saturday, May 10th, 2008, Brandy Ritchie was honored with the annual Veterans of Foreign Wars Medic of the Year Award for exemplary service to EMS and Faulkner County. Brandy was nominated by the Foxtrots for her leadership, dedication and skills. Congratulations, Brandy, and thank you for being such a wonderful asset to MEMS.

Congratulations New Captains

Corey Burns and Dean Douglas will be promoted to the rank of Captain. They will begin their orientation training in the next few days. Thank you to everyone who applied; this is not an easy process for either the applicants or the staff.

Secure MEMS Medic

Just wanted to remind you of another tool we have to communicate with. Secure MEMS Medic is a website that has everything from the new patient destination policy, to a video on bagging in an updraft to shop info on the black box. If you are a MEMS employee log on to medic.metroems.org and register for you own password and name. I will keep you posted as things are added.

GT

May 1 2008 New Patient Destination Policy

This is the new policy, Please also log on to the MEMS Medic web site for more information including the miranda language that we want you to use when explaining this policy to patients.

medic.metroems.org



MEMS Patient Destination Policy

1 May 2008

Patient destination will be based upon hospital capability and capacity considerations in accordance with the following guidelines:

1. MEMS will continue to recognize that some area hospitals lack the capability to handle certain patients and are not normally an appropriate destination.

2. When area hospitals are over capacity they will continue to report that condition to MEMS, but will no longer be placed on diversion status. Instead, MEMS will continue to log the information and proceed using the following definitions:

Alpha status (green) – The hospital is in normal operations in the given category

Bravo status (yellow) – The hospital is currently over capacity. The hospital will report this condition to MEMS from the category list provided below. In turn, when the hospital is no longer in an over capacity status, they will report this condition to MEMS and will be returned to Alpha (green) status. After two hours in Bravo status, the hospital will automatically revert back to Alpha status.

Charlie status (red) – The hospital lacks the capability to provide a specific type of care and would not normally be an appropriate destination for a patient whose condition would require care in that category. The Charlie determination will be made by the AEPF and the respective hospital administrators for each specific category of care MEMS is tracking for each hospital in the MEMS service.

If the hospital lacks capability in a given area, they would normally always be in Charlie status for that specific category of care. One potential exception is neuro coverage. In this case, depending upon available staffing coverage, a hospital’s status could be reported as Charlie for only that time the capability is lacking and would return to an Alpha or Bravo status when that capability is restored. Example: A facility can report itself in Charlie status for neuro surgery when they do not have a neuro surgeon on call.

Overcrowding is considered a capacity, not a capability issue.

3. Consistent with state EMS rules and regulations, MEMS will transport the patient to the hospital of their choice within our service area. If the patient requests to be transported to a hospital that does not have the capability to treat the patient, MEMS will advise the patient and have them designate another.

4. If the patient requests to be transported to a hospital reporting “Bravo” (over capacity) status in the category of care needed, MEMS will advise the patient that their treatment may be delayed and suggest alternate appropriate hospitals reporting “Alpha” status in that category of care. MEMS will take the patient to the hospital of their choice including their original request.

5. In the event the patient does not, or cannot, designate the hospital of choice, MEMS will transport the patient to an appropriate hospital reporting “Alpha” status in the category of care required. If no hospitals are in “Alpha: status, MEMS will transport to the closest appropriate hospital.

6. If the patient is code blue, or, if in the opinion of the treating paramedic, the patient is in a critical condition, the paramedic may elect to go to the closest hospital regardless of the current capability or capacity status of that facility.

7. In the event MEMS declares a mass casualty incident, or MCI, (8 triage red and/or yellow or 10 patients in any triage category), MEMS will determine the distribution of all patients based upon current hospital capability and capacity considerations as well as total patient count, other concurrent demands for ambulance services, availability of MEMS and mutual aid ambulances, travel distance and other immediate operational considerations.

8. Exception: MEMS will continue to recognize psych diversions. MEMS will transport the patient to the facility of their choice if that facility is not on psych diversion, unless we are in psych “round-robin” status. Psych “round-robin takes effect when 3 of the 4 major hospitals (Baptist Little Rock, Baptist Springhill, St. Vincent Infirmary and UAMS) report themselves on psych diversion. When 3 of these 4 hospitals are on psych diversion, MEMS will distribute psych patients on a “round-robin” basis to all Pulaski County emergency departments.

9. MEMS will use the following categories of care in recording Alpha, Bravo and Charlie status:

Entire Facility Emergency Room
Critical Care – Trauma* Critical Care – Medical
Stemi/Cath lab Neuro Surgery*
Other Neuro* Emergency Surgery*
Labor and Delivery Ortho
Stroke/CVA* Psych
Peds Cat Scan*

* If the hospital loses all of their CAT scan machines, the hospital would be considered to not have capability in theses areas

Tammy Hagler promoted to Lieutenant

A restructuring is taking place in the scheduling office, in recognition of this Tammy Hagler has been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. Congratulations LT. Haggler.

Little Rock in JEMS

Little Rock Plan Looks to End Patient Diversions from Crowded Hospitals


LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Little Rock area hospitals no longer would be able to automatically divert ambulances from crowded emergency rooms under an ordinance before the city's Board of Directors tonight.

In a move approved by hospital administrators, Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services wants to eliminate diversions from hospitals in the four-county area it serves to ensure patients aren't turned away from their hospital of choice. The city board will vote on whether to repeal the code requiring the ambulance service to honor diversions.

Link to Story

Good thinking

So there they were, mom locks keys in car...with child....trunk is left open.....beautiful convertible BMW, mom willing to cut top to get kid out, but wait! Our own Clayton Goddard....climbs through the trunk and rescues child.
Great thinking Clayton!!
Thanks to your partner for the action shots ;-)

FYI Captain interviews started

After the flooding, tornadoes, drills and the like, we finally started interviews for the open Captain positions today.

Ambulance worker loses arm in accident

I always hate to report news like this, but want to keep you aware of what is happening in our field. This serves as a reminder to us that we must be careful out here. We have had some close calls, lets make sure that is all they ever are.

Greg


WEST NYACK - An emergency service worker lost her right arm today after the ambulance in which she was a passenger crashed into a truck parked along Route 59 near the flyover to the Palisades Center mall.

Bonnie Ames, 20, was taken by helicopter to the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla where she underwent surgery.

Link to rest of story

AWARD WINNERS

In all the events of the week, I failed to tell you that Joe Sexton and Dana Burnett were selected as EMT's of the year by the city of Sherwood's Chamber of Commerce. They were recognized for their work the day that Ron Spychalski coded in communications. They not only witnessed the near death of a co-worker, but summoned help, managed their own emergency and at the same time, continued to handle the public's emergencies. Congratulations to Joe and Dana!

422

As you may have heard 422 was involved in an accident at Asher and University in route to a call, not patient loaded. The crew suffered minor injuries, and were both treated at BMC. Medic A Williams was extracted from the passenger seat. The MVA involved a city CAT bus with three passengers plus the diver on board. The passenger were transported all non-critical. Unsure of cause, or fault. Thank God that everyone is as well as they are. We will dig more into the investigation Monday. It is bad, but we are alive, and for the most part well.
I say it all the time to you, Please be careful out there!!

Storms once again

Thursday evening was a big one. We went into condition Yellow status around 9:04
And moved to Red status at around 9:30. Thank you to all who called.
I want to tell those who either held over or came in how much I appreciate you. If you complained I never heard it.
We had a new night Major Janie who acted like a pro and that this was not her first Rodeo, (come to think of it I guess its not) It was newly promoted Caption Pipkins at the helm in dispatch, on his second night with a room full of those in training, or fairly new communications staff. Watching them all work told me that we have a great future. It seemed that our whole service area was getting hit. I was on the phone with MedTran several times in the night to make sure they were OK, they checked on us for the same reason. All the time this was going on, MEMS station sustained a direct lightening hit. Causing us to lose 911 at the dispatch console, SIPS, the AWIN base, electric gates and doors. At the same time that the alarms were going off, wind driven rain came in through a vent in the west wall causing a major leak in the computer room, threatening our intranet. All the while our communications staff worked through the obstacles, keeping their head in the game. They have this one under their belt great job. I want to thank Ron who came in and helped us monitor all that was going on lending his expertise.

For those on the streets, I was not with you in person, but listened as you crossed trees, waded water, dodged storms, fought wind and many other obstacles, never complained. Some doing 17 calls yesterday, but you got the job done, just like you do everyday. Folks I come in most everyday, and do my best to pound out the behind the scenes work that my job requires. I come with the intention to tell you every chance that I can, that I do notice you, and I appreciate your work, spirit and skill. It is probably always too slow, but never, ever forget or doubt that I appreciate you and am in your corner. I am proud of you all!
Greg

Link

8 for 8 !!

Rookie class 10 pulled off an amazing feat all of them passed their written and practical test and are now ALL National registered EMTs. They will start their ride time with FTOs right away. This is a big feat to say the least. Congratulations not only goes the the students, but the staff as well. MEMS Academy has one of the highest pass rates in the country!! We are proud of you all!

I/430 Bridge incident

Wednesday was a long day. As you know 3 men fell from the I/430 bridge when their scaffolding broke free from the bridge. It is one of those calls that we can never write a plan for, because of all the variables. Thank you to Chris Marshall, Clayton Goddard and Chris Waters who did outstanding jobs providing medical as well as logistic support for the effort.


Link to story

Update

Several things have happened since my last Blog. It is important to me that this does not become of no relevance, by being so long between post, my apologies

Lonoke- We did hand over the keys to the station of Lonoke to Southern. We will continue to respond to some of Lonoke County, specifically Butlerville and Tri-Community fire districts. 128 has been moved to the Sherwood station.

New BLS Type 2- Our newest unit just arrived, and is not striped as of this writing. It will be numbered 73. This will replace the old 73 (that used to be 126, and before that SS1) we are waiting to see if it has major motor damage or can repaired to be used as a special event truck only. If we can use it at all, I plane on having the striping redone to make it look “fresher” and renumbering it to ?? we will decided then about the number

609 is back from Excellance, it has been gone since August of 2007. We sent 407 for remounting.

Wheel chair van- We replaced the wrecked 62 with a 2008 Ford numbered now 62. The wrecked unit along with “old blue” (old shop truck) are currently scheduled to be sold for salvage.

Captain Posting- It may have appeared that we have forgotten that we are in the middle of this process, but nothing could be further from the truth. We plan to schedule interviews starting new week.

Greg

Hi Again

Been a while since I have posted, wanted to update you on a few things;
1. We will be leaving Lonoke April 1 2008 at 07:00 at that time Southern will be moving into our old station (we sold it to the city of Lonoke)
2. I will be beginning the interview process for the Captain applicants this week. I will give you more as this unfolds.
3. 511 just got back from Excellance where it was repaired, 609 is almost done, and should arrive next week. We will be sending 407 to be remounted.

Family blames ambulance company for death

I am sure you have heard the story by now, below is the link to the newspaper article.

NLR TIMES

Chili Cook Off

The first MEMS chili cook off was held at station one Saturday night. The competition was fierce, with 10 separate entries.

Our Judges

We brought in Trained Chef Bill Warren. Bill’s credentials included, owner of Twin City Brokerage, member of the Coleman Cooking Team, past judge at many events including the state fair, as well as an official judge of the Miss. Arkansas Pageant to name only a few..

LT John Sparks- John is with Asp and serves as the pilot to the Governor. Traveling with the governor has allowed John to be apart of many such functions around our great state. John is also a cook himself.

Debbie Thompson- Not only is she my wife, but quite the cook in her own right. She works PRN for Twin City Brokerage as an account rep. and has worked many food shows.

And then of course me, my only credentials are I know how to eat. ..

Prize Money

Craig Jones stated out the prize money with $ 50.00 of his own money donated from his building company Payton Place Homes. He was successful in getting not only his $50.00 matched, but had others join him, the list was:

Ø Marlin Doucet $100.00

Ø Dr. Fahdi $100.00

Ø Dr. Wendall Pahls $100.00

Ø Dr. Chuck Mason $100.00,

Ø Craig Jones upped his to an even $100.00

Ø Jon Swanson $100.00.

The winners were

1. Terri Lee $300.00
2. Michelle Bentley $200.00
3. Bob and Peggy Jones $100.00

Great job to all !!