Rhode Island Metro EMS Association

We are pleased to announce our upcoming programs for FALL of 2024.
EMT Basic: 9/9/24
AEMT-Cardiac: 9/10/24
*Advanced Pathway to Paramedic: 10/7/24
*Nationally Registered Paramedic: 10/7/24
*students may eligible for up to 41 college credits
DISCOUNTS available for student that pay in full on the first night of class. Please visit erg-ems.com for more information or email us at [email protected]

Congratulations Chief Craig Stanley! Very well deserved!

On August 20th, responders were called to assist with an unresponsive patient, with bystander CPR already in progress. A Charlestown Police Officer was first on the scene and continued CPR until further help arrived. With the support of Dunn's Corners Fire Department first responders and additional police, our outstanding EMS providers were able to intervene rapidly, achieving a return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC). Thanks to exceptional basic and advanced life support measures, this patient now has a strong chance of meaningful recovery from this critical event. Our thoughts are with the patient and their loved ones.

Please register and share!

Register for the 2024 Rhode Island Trauma Conference

https://web.cvent.com/event/2706217f-ef10-4909-860a-4e5c22470acf/websitePage:26b91cff-f31d-44b7-a92b-2d5c48804101

🚑📊 Joint Statement on EMS Performance Metrics – Beyond Response Times 📊🚑

Sixteen national and international EMS, patient safety, and public policy associations have united to release a powerful Joint Statement on EMS Performance Metrics. This initiative calls for EMS systems and community leaders to prioritize patient-centered care and evaluate EMS effectiveness using a broad, balanced set of measures.

🔍 Key Highlights:

Focus on clinical, safety, experiential, equity, operational, and financial measures.
Encourages modernizing the assessment of EMS systems with comprehensive KPIs.
Emphasizes the importance of publishing data regularly to local stakeholders.

📢 Key Fields to Evaluate:

Effective: Is the care clinically appropriate and high quality?
Safe: Are services provided safely for patients, responders, and the community?
Satisfying: How do patients and EMS clinicians feel about the service?
Equitable: Is the care equitable across patient demographics and geographies?
Efficient: Are resources maximized effectively?

By adopting these comprehensive metrics, communities can better understand and improve their EMS systems, enhancing patient care and emergency response capabilities.

The Joint Statement on EMS Performance Metrics – Beyond Response Times can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/4yy2w9mf.

A PDF of the Joint Statement can be downloaded here: https://tinyurl.com/ytsnf7k6.

A resource guide for effective evaluation of EMS systems, including supporting studies, can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/4un22ezn.

Yesterday marked the sixtieth anniversary of a fatal nuclear accident that occurred at the United Nuclear Corporation’s Wood River facility in Charlestown Rhode Island on July 24th of 1964.

Robert Peabody, 37 year-old married man with nine children, was exposed to a fatal dose of radiation estimated to be equivalent to more than 700,000 chest x-rays.

There is an unfortunate and sad connection to Westerly in this tragic incident.

At the time of the accident, a call was placed to Rhode Island State Police at the Hope Valley Barracks requesting an ambulance. Charlestown Ambulance had not been formed yet and Hope Valley Ambulance was not available so an ambulance from Westerly Ambulance was dispatched.

They responded to the facility and transported the injured man to Westerly hospital. They also transported George Spencer, another employee of the plant, who had begun treating Peabody for his injuries and comforting him prior to arrival of the ambulance.

Upon arriving at the hospital, staff met them outside and advised them that they would not accept the patient per order of Dr. Freeman Bruno Angelli who directed the crew to transport the critical patient to Rhode Island Hospital.

The ambulance crew was advised to wait for a police es**rt, but the crew refused to wait and immediately left Westerly Hospital enroute to Rhode Island Hospital. They reportedly made the trip in less than 30 minutes.

According to the compliance investigation report dated September 16th of 1964, “Theambulance used for transporting two men to the hospital was successfully decontaminated on Saturday, July 25, 1964.”

Robert Peabody died 49 hours after the accident.

While never confirmed as being directly related, his wife (who had briefly held her husband‘s hand at the hospital) later contracted cancer, as did George Spencer and both of the Westerly ambulance attendants.

The Rhode Island Blood Center has declared a blood emergency and is seeking blood donations. In the past several weeks, donations have been hundreds short of what is needed to meet hospital demand. Today, Jason Rhodes, RIDOH's Chief of the Center for Emergency Medical Services rolled up his sleeves to help save lives and you can too. Find a donor center or drive near you at bit.ly/4cFwUyK.

Warwick - Firefighter - Coming Soon!

GET STARTED: https://hubs.ly/Q02xtky70

Can early administration of antibiotics can make a difference for open fractures? 🤔🚑💉

A recent study dives into the efficacy and time savings associated with EMS-administered antibiotics for open fractures.
Here's the scoop!

📊 Study Findings:
➊ EMS can safely administer antibiotics to open fracture patients significantly sooner than hospital delivery—about 15 minutes earlier on average.
➋ This timely intervention aligns with guidelines that recommend antibiotics within one hour of injury to reduce infection risks significantly.
➌ No increase in adverse reactions (e.g., anaphylaxis) was observed, indicating a safe application by EMS professionals.

🏥 Impact on Patient Care:
➡ Early EMS administration of antibiotics could enhance adherence to time-sensitive treatment guidelines.
➡ This approach is especially crucial in rural or remote areas where transport times to hospitals are longer.

📈 Takeaway:
➡ Incorporating antibiotics for open fractures into EMS protocols offers a feasible strategy to expedite care, potentially increasing guideline compliance and improving patient outcomes.

For a detailed read and more insights on this transformative approach in EMS care, check out the full study here: https://ow.ly/A4pw50RClrf

Thank you Brooke Lawrence, RIMRC, and Boundtree Medical.

If you are still using backboards (long boards) at your EMS agency, this post is for you.

If not, you can skip this one.

Interestingly, despite multiple studies and position statements (linked below), backboards are still being used to transport patients.

In 2018, the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma (ACS-COT), American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), and the National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP), released a position statement on EMS Spinal Precautions that provided the indications of using a long backboard.

More than 6 years later, we still see patients transported on these painful devices.

Spinal motion restriction should be the goal, which involves using a c-collar and firmly securing the patient to the stretcher to limit movement.

So why are patients still suffering a painful ride to the hospital?

Here's what happens when people lay on a hard board:
• Pressure injuries, particularly from long spine board use, could start in as little as 30 minutes!
• Decreased respiratory function from chest straps, especially concerning for children and the elderly
• Pain within 30 minutes of immobilization, including headaches and back pain

📣 It's worth highlighting, that there is no role for SMR in penetrating trauma.

What have we found most useful?
◘ We have converted to using the Scoop Stretcher to get the patient from the ground to the stretcher.....then we remove the scoop.
◘ The patient's spinal movement is being restricted by laying flat on the stretcher, sans hard board.
◘ We still use the C-Collar, yet the hard plastic devices have been called into question (not a surprise). A softer, fitted C-Collar seems to make more sense, yet this still hasn't been established in the literature.
More on C-Collars here: https://ow.ly/E8Mq50RwGOa

📚 Read the 2018 Position Statement here: https://ow.ly/fpN850RwGOb

Other related articles:
⦿ https://ow.ly/B5A850RwGO8.
⦿ https://ow.ly/VyFV50RwGOc
⦿ https://ow.ly/U6Ya50RwGOe
⦿ https://ow.ly/BUY150RwGOf
⦿ https://ow.ly/pUWH50RwGO9

Spiked Helmet Sign

It's that time of the year again! We would love for you to join us for the
Forged In Fire Honor Flight
send-off or return ceremony. Everyone is welcome on the lower level of
T.F. Green International Airport to show your support for our nation's heroes.

The 2024 Emergency Response Guidebook has been released by PHMSA! As a first responder, having quick access to critical information is paramount, and the ERG is an invaluable resource. CHEMTREC is proud to support this valuable tool for coordinating and ensuring community safety.

By Michael Morse

I learned a thing or two while I was running 911 calls. One of the most important things I learned was to always have a plan. More important than having a plan was having a Plan B. But it is of utmost importance to have a Master Plan:

THE MASTER PLAN: ALWAYS REMEMBER; YOU ARE GOING TO MISS THIS.

That's it. That's the master plan. Sorry if you expected something grandiose, earth shattering or ingenious. I simply don't have anything to share other than that. It took me 25 years to realize that I was going to miss it. I wish somebody had told me these five simple words years ago. Nobody did, but I am telling you now. You're going to miss this:

1) THE LITTLE OLD LADIES

Not because their maladies are challenging. Not because they need an EMT or paramedic and by god you showed up and saved their lives. Rather, you are going to miss the interaction. You will miss knowing that a lonely old lady became far less lonely because of your presence in her life. You will miss the feeling of well-being you derive from connecting with another human being, and being a positive influence in that person‘s life by providing comfort, competent medical care and a willing ear for somebody who needs it.

2) THE LITTLE YOUNG LADIES

You will miss feeling larger than life when a 4-year-old's eyes light up at the sight of you. You will miss laying your hand on their forehead, and telling the worried mom that her child‘s temperature is 103 degrees, and that the seizure activity was fairly common, and that in all likelihood it was a result of the elevated temp. You will miss wrapping the child in a blanket, and protecting her from the cold as you carry her out of her home and into the frigid night, then making her comfortable in your office, the one that speeds through deserted streets a few hours before dawn, and deliver her to the emergency room.

3) THE SUNRISE

You will miss witnessing night give way to daylight as you speed through that sleeping city or town to the daybreak emergency call. You are going to miss the satisfied exhaustion at the end of your shift, and remember that in the big scheme of things a call just before shift change has the potential to be the one that made all of the others tolerable.

4) YOUR PARTNER

You will have friends, siblings and spouses. You will have parents and teachers, children and acquaintances. But you will miss your partner more than any of them when it's over. Because when it is over, it is over. Never again will you have the confidant sitting next to you as you try to make sense of the remains of the 20-year-old girl whose life ended at the end of a rope. Nobody else will be able to grasp the emotional rollercoaster that you experience together — and nobody will ever see you at your most raw, when the blood has yet to dry on your uniform, and the sights and smells are still alive inside of you — not as a memory that is fading, but as a reality that has just occurred.

5) THE SATISFACTION

You knew that you wanted to do something that made a difference. You wanted to help people. You wanted to matter. You may have lost sight of the fact that you have accomplished your objectives. While you are “in the soup” it may seem as if you are accomplishing nothing. People live, people die; you did your job and the end result remained the same. But to the people whose lives sometimes depend on you, you have accomplished far more. It won't be until you have hung up the radio, stripped off the uniform, put up your feet and had a chance to reflect will you be able to realize your contributions.

At the end of your career, when the ink has not only dried, but has begun to fade from the pages of history, it all becomes clear. You DID matter. You were one of the ones who made a difference. And while you were too busy to realize just how important your contributions were, somebody, perhaps your partner, maybe a patient or even a bystander was not too busy to notice, and was able to take some of what you offered, and make it part of themselves, and become better at what they do, and continue to do.

You are going to miss this. It will always be part of who you are, and who you were will always be a part of what EMS is.

Captain Whaley and Chief Kettle are in DC for National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians EMS On The Hill Day, championing our service and advocating for support on both state and national levels. Let’s rally behind them as they speak up for the essential role of EMS in our communities! 🚑

There is no shortage of conferences within the EMS space, and presenting at one of these conferences can be an excellent opportunity for professional growth. However, the difference between a decent presentation and an amazing presentation lies in the clarity and call to action. What will you give them to walk away with?

https://www.foamfrat.com/post/3-easy-tips-to-improve-your-next-conference-talk

Chief Craig E. Stanley, Leadership-What is Leadership and What Does Leadership Look Like?

Tackling Tiny Troubles: Navigating Pediatric Airways & Tachypnea, Katheryn Schissler, DO, FAAP

Epi concentrations simplified. Dr. Antevy, Patron-ize me!

Dr. Peter Antevy, MD presenting Pediatric Tips and Tricks