Next year the Gathering of Eagles will celebrate its 19th rendition. And you should be there. The Gathering of Eagles isn’t like the academic conferences many of the Eagles’ faculty present at. Nor is it like smaller state-level conferences many in the audience attend. And it definitely isn’t like the larger EMS conferences such as EMS World Expo. It’s a different breed entirely. The Gathering started … Continue reading The Gathering of Eagles: 2016
The recent tuberculosis outbreak in Marion, Alabama, has resulted in a controversial public health program paying people to get tested for TB. Although more than 1,000 people have been tested through this program, that only represents 10 percent of the county’s population. While economic incentives are not recommended as the first step in prevention, this is an active outbreak that has taken at least three lives. Additionally, 20 … Continue reading Public Health Obligation to Prevent TB Transmission
The National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) published a follow-up report to the now famous Institute of Medicine’s “To Err Is Human.” The new report, “Free from Harm”, calls attention to the patient safety lessons learned over the past decade and a half, as well as reminding health care providers that many of the same issues initially spotlighted still remain. Although EMS is not specifically mentioned in … Continue reading The Role of EMS in Patient Safety
What follows is a list of resources mentioned during various session at this year’s NAEMSP Annual Meeting. This conference represents the best of the science of EMS. So as to not overtly violate the ethics of conference attendance (and therefore conference fees), all information was found on the web during the various sessions. I try to refrain from interpretation, but if you have any questions … Continue reading National Association of EMS Physicians 2016 Annual Meeting
After every conference I like to make a list of resources mentioned throughout the various sessions. Keeping track of this information is one of the biggest reasons I use Twitter so heavily on these occasions. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s National Forum is one of my favorite conferences. Although it is disproportionately attended by clinicians, I always feel at home surrounded by so many passionate … Continue reading Institute for Healthcare Improvement 27th National Forum
Recent news headlines suggest that vehicular safety poses the greatest risk to the lives of EMS providers. While that may be true if the focus is solely on line-of-duty deaths, the majority of EMS deaths occur because of skewed priorities that are too rigorously focused on a single issue. As with any other improvement effort, there is no silver bullet to preventing the death or … Continue reading Shifting the focus on provider safety
Kelly Grayson of Ambulance Driver Files recently penned an article on EMS1 regarding the “protocol paradox” which he defines as: “The more restrictive your agency’s protocols are, the more likely it is necessary to deviate from them, and the more likely that agency is to punish harshly for such deviations.” Mr. Grayson makes some extremely valid points about the utility of protocols within EMS. While he supports the use … Continue reading EMS Protocols
Dr. Sanghavi has managed to, yet again, create quite a storm within EMS circles. For those of you that don’t recognize her name, she is the same researcher that brought us last November’s much criticized “Outcomes After Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Treated by Basic vs Advanced Life Support”within JAMA Internal Medicine. This time, she has published “Outcomes of Basic Versus Advanced Life Support for Out-of-Hospital Medical Emergencies” within the … Continue reading ALS vs. BLS Research
Dear New Orleans, This is going to seem strange, but today I am grateful for the hurricanes that taught me what recovery means, what rebirth can create, and what resilience truly embodies. No city has overcome the obstacles that you have conquered, and none can say that they have more grit or determination than those that call you home. You became my home in a … Continue reading Dear New Orleans Letter
A recent debate on EMS pay has erupted after Mr. Sean Eddy of Medic Madness wrote “5 Reasons Why EMS Doesn’t Deserve Higher Pay” on Uniform Stories. To say the EMS industry has reacted as he expected would be par for the course. First, I agree with most of his five points, however I fundamentally disagree with his method of dispersing said opinions and the slants with which … Continue reading EMS Pay Debate
Flirting with Adrenaline 