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 ;-)