H1N1

You’ve likely heard by now. After weeks of hesitating, the World Health Organization has declared the H1N1 virus infections to be a Level 6 on the pandemic scale, which means a pandemic has been announced. The thing is this... you are still the same. My life is still the same. Nothing has changed from the five minutes before the announcement and five minutes after the announcement. That’s what people need to remember before beginning to panic.

How long can influenza viruses stay alive?

According to the standard information we have, the virus stays alive on your hands for about five minutes. It can stay alive on your clothing for up to 12 hours and it can exist on objects for up to 48 hours.

How do infections like influenza get transmitted?

There are five ways infections can be transmitted:

1. Skin to skin contact (scabies, for example)

2. Droplet (cold viruses coughed into the air and breathed in)

3. Airborne (much tinier viruses that hang around in the air, like H1N1 virus)

4. Common (an contagious person drinks from a water bottle, you drink from it moments later)

5. Insects (malaria, for example)

How can we protect ourselves from infections like influenza?

It can’t be stressed enough: hand washing – and proper hand washing, not just rinsing your hands under the water. Here is a site that has a good video showing how to wash your hands with either soap and water or sanitizer.

Hand washing breaks the infection chain. A pathogen (virus, bacteria, fungus) needs to be able to spread. Once it spreads, it has to have a good host (good living conditions) to flourish. If we stop it from spreading, then it can’t get any further.

Let’s not forget about maintaining a clean, safe environment in both the back and front of our trucks.

Ron

Thank You From The EAP

Not a good news story

A former ambulance driver who was involved in a crash that killed a passenger in April 2008 pleaded not guilty Monday to multiple charges, including murder, a spokesman for the Jefferson County commonwealth's attorney's office said.
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Tammy Renee Brewer also was charged with assault, driving under the influence, wanton endangerment and criminal mischief in the death of 54-year-old Vickie Whobrey.

Brewer was indicted by a Jefferson County grand jury Thursday.

She allegedly was driving an ambulance while under the influence of drugs when she swerved off Rockford Lane and hit a utility pole and rolled through two ditches while Whobrey was in the back. The ambulance came to rest in a yard. Brewer told investigators she swerved to avoid a pedestrian who had darted in front of the ambulance.

Brewer had also been due to appear in court Friday after she was cited in March of this year for not having proof of insurance after an noninjury accident on Interstate 65 in which it was determined she was at fault.

When she failed to show up for a hearing to determine whether she had paid a $1,000 fine and court costs, a bench warrant was issued for her arrest, but the warrant was recalled after Brewer showed up for her arraignment in the April 2008 incident Monday, said Bill Patteson, a spokesman for the Jefferson County attorney's office.

Patteson said Brewer had been sentenced to 90 days in jail in June because of the March incident, but she was conditionally discharged and did not spend any time in jail.

In January 2008, just months before the ambulance crash, Brewer was caught speeding in a school zone near Bates Elementary on Bardstown Road. She was charged with going 23 mph over the limit, no proof of insurance and an expired license plate, according to arrest records.

And in September 2006, Brewer was charged with having expired insurance and an expired license plate after she was involved in an accident in the 5800 block of Bardstown Road.

Brewer was driving personal vehicles in those incidents.

MEMS Academy hits two home runs!!

Congratulations to Medic 7 on a 100% pass rate on their National Registry practical test





Congratulations to Rookie 14 on a 100% pass rate for their National Registry test.

New BLS Units Ordered

We are trying to take pressure off the ALS emergency side of the house. We have hired more full time EMTs and just order two more type 2 Wheeled Coach units. They should be delivered in 30 45 days. The newly hired EMTs will complete 2-3 weeks of classroom training and then will start out as drivers on BLS shifts. This is a departure of our normal way of doing business. Starting on the BLS units will allow time for learning geography, radio traffic, MEMS system etc.. in a slower setting. As FTO's become available they will move to the ALS side and resume their ALS training.

Vet Medicine ??

Trying out the "Howler"

In an effort to give you the best tools, we are evaluating one of the latest in emergency warning devices; the “Howler” The Howler provides deep, low frequency tones, which are able to penetrate other vehicles, alerting drivers and pedestrians of your approach.
They are currently being tested by LRFD, NLRFD and ASP. We placed it on 954 since the pickup style vehicles seem to have the most trouble getting noticed by traffic. If this works well, we are looking at putting them on the entire fleet.

New Valium Packaging

MEMS Challenge Coins & 25th Anniversary Artwork

MEMS’ Challenge Coins and 25th Anniversary Artwork are here!!!

The Challenge Coins are serialized (101 thru ???) and will be issued based upon current seniority.

The artwork, by Jim Mullenax, is specific to MEMS and was drawn in honor of our 25th Anniversary!

If you have been a full-time employee, in good standing for more than one year, you are eligible to receive these gifts. Employees who have not completed one year of full time employment must wait until their anniversary date to receive theirs.

These items will be available for pick-up from Lee Harper beginning this Thursday, July 16, 2009.

110/12 Volt A/C System

As you know cooling a unit is quite the task these days, especially when you add the problem with not being able to idle the unit all the time. We are beginning the process of moving some units around to help combat this problem.

Plugging the unit in, even in the summer
The Chevy units are not able to be idled for long periods of time. There is a new exhaust system that actually clogs up and causes the unit to run at reduced power if the unit idles too long. This could be quite a problem when given an emergency. To combat this we began to move to a 110/12 Volt A/C system a few years ago. This means, that when you plug it into a shore line, the A/C as well as the heat works. We are moving these units to the outlying stations during the summer months, some of the units will remain in the city. The goal is to have all our fleet equipment with a system like this to reduce idling time, and heat problems.

We are having signs made for the interior as well as the exterior to remind you to plug in the truck to keep it cool.
Unit 507 has a generator on it. We will be placing it on a 12 hour city car fulltime to test its ability to reduce idle time. This unit has its own unique procedure to be followed.

Setting the high idle
When you do have to idle a truck on scene, be sure to always set your emergency brake which enables the high idle. This helps the unit cool, as well as reduces the strain on the alternator. Failure to do this is causing some real issues. So you will know, the high idle causes the fan to run faster, causing the engine to run cooler, I know it sounds like it is going to blow up, but it really is better for the unit.

Idling at the hospitals
While I am talking about idling, the hospitals are asking us once again, to kill the units when in their ER bay. Our noise and exhaust are causing a problem in their building. Please respect this wish.


The following units have a 110/12 volt A/C system
126, 136, 137, 138, 228, 232, 415, 416, 420, 425, 502, 504, 513, 514, 519, 522, 609

5.11 Polo Shirts

Many of you have already made the switch to the 5.11 polo shirts (it’s the style w/ the pen pocket on the left sleeve). The polos have held up very well and has become the predominate polo ordered lately. Because of these issues, I have spoke w/ Greg about making it our official uniform polo shirt. Greg agreed and approved for us to make the switch. So, MEMS made a purchase of approx 800 polo shirts that’s (navy and long and short sleeve). The polo shirts are being embroidered right now and should be ready for orders to be filled next week. If you have ordered polos within the last week or so, give me a just a few more days, and you’ll be ready to go. If you have any questions, let me know. By the way, you can order your polo shirts on line through the MEMS Company Store, so you don’t have to fill out paperwork and leave on my desk, you can order them from the comfort of your house.

Company Store is up and running, so have a look…….
10 Minute Fitness is available, so get your butt in shape………
5.11 polos are the new polos, so update your shirts, if they need to be…….


As always, if you have any questions, please see Louis

10 Minute Fitness

I have all of the detail worked out and we now have an arrangement with 10 Minute Fitness centers for our exercise program. 10 Minute Fitness has 2 locations 1 in Little Rock (hwy 10) and the other in North Little Rock (by McCain). The store have 24 hrs access during the week and open approx 16 hours each day on Saturday and Sunday. 10 Minute Fitness has all of the modern conveniences for weight and cardio training.

The arrangement is: 10 Minute Fitness will wave the $50.00 sign on fee and MEMS will payroll deduct the membership dues which are $10.00 per month (so you’re looking at $5.00 per pay period) that’s not a bad deal at all considering the resources that will be available to you. If you would like anything additional (i.e. tanning, personal training, they are available but you’ll have to work those option directly w/ 10 Minute Fitness). To get started, see Louis to fill out.

MEMS Company Store

Some of you may know and some may not, but MEMS now has an On-Line Company Store. The store is up and running and open for business. You can find it on line @ at our web address www.metroems.org. You’ll the see the “Company Store” box, just click on it and away you go. If you’ve ever ordered on line before, the store will look very familiar, if you haven’t ordered on line before, it’ll very easy to follow. Its important to know that we no long keep items like t-shirts, ball caps toboggans, etc on hand here at sta.1 so plan accordingly.

All you have to do is go through the items available for purchase, make you selections, and check out. When you check out, YOU WILL NOT BE ASKED FOR CREDIT CARD INFORMATION. Your order will be sent to my email, and I’ll get your order taken care. I will forward your order to store that warehouse’s our inventory, and the order will be here the same day or the very next day. The system has been in place for a couple weeks and has been working fine. Items that are approved Uniform Allowance will be posted to your uniform allowance, and items that are payroll deduct, will be deducted from your payroll check. If you have any questions, please see me. Also, fyi this will be order method for the sweat shirt order we use to do once a year. These type of items will be available year round.

Link to store

New Glucose Meters Coming

You will be seeing a new glucose meter on your ambulance in the next week. We decided to evaluate a new meter for several reasons and found the following differences:


a). Current meter takes 20 seconds to produce glucose result, Contour (new meter) takes only 5 seconds, Blood sample can be obtained from a capillary or venous site.



b). Current meter requires a code strip (to calibrate) and it must be checked regularly, Contour doesn’t require any type of coding or calibrating of the meter before the strips are added.



c). Current meter hi/low display is 500-20 range, Contour blood glucose range is 600 -10 range

The cost are the same between the meters. We believe after the field test, and the differences noted above the Contour meter will better fit our needs.

It functions the same as the old with the exceptions of.
1. No need to calibrate
2. The strips are stored in a small bottle and not packaged individually

NOTE- venous blood or capillary blood is acceptable to this unit

Great Work

I noticed two things in reviewing reports that I want to say job well done.


Response Times for June
While I am still premature, I wanted to acknowledge the effort that is being made to make our response times. While I know that there are several factors that the crew does not have any control over, there are several that you do such as reaction times, turn times, knowledge of where you are going etc, , and overall everyone seems to be managing these better.

Driving Report
I noticed on the latest driving report that we have improved significantly in backing with a spotter. As you know backing accidents are one of our largest preventable expenses.


I know I get busy sometimes and miss the opportunity to say job well done and Thank You, I did not want to miss this opportunity.

Great Job!


Greg

Pictures Available

We have posted some of the pictures of the anniversary banquet on line. The MEMS history Documentary is in final edit, I will let you know when it is available. Thank you again for making it a fun day!
Greg

on-line album

Swine Flu

The new strain of flu has been a part of our news over the past few days. We are meeting with our area health depart staff to monitor any activity form this strain in Arkansas. Let me remind you that we treat this threat like we would any other air or droplet borne exposure.

The following is an excerpt from a Health Department release from Dallas County today:


1. Any providers approaching an individual who appears sick with a fever AND who has a cough OR difficulty breathing should first place a mask on themselves,including eye protection, and should wear gloves. The mask should preferably be one that offers protection at an N95 mask level or higher.

2. After protecting themselves with the mask, eye protection, and gloves, providers should place a similar mask on the patient, if it can be tolerated. It is understandable that patients with shortness of breath may not tolerate such a mask, especially if oxygen is being administered or possibly CPAP.

Nebulize through the Boussignac CPA

Yes you can………

Nebulize through the Boussignac CPAP System

Congratulations Carla!

Carla Kelley was honored on April 11th, 2009, as the Faulkner County Veterans of Foreign Wars Paramedic of the Year. Carla was honored for her dedication to EMS, much of it in Faulkner County, her strong skills, and her compassion for her patients. She was a unanimous choice by the Foxtrots.