EMS Goes To Capitol Hill

As some of you know, I'm involved with NAEMT's legislative advocacy efforts on behalf of EMS. Yesterday, I spent the day walking the halls of the Capitol offices meeting with some of the Commonwealth's legislative contingent - mostly their staffers, but I did get to meet one Representative. This was the 5th EMS On The Hill day, and the 4th one I've attended.

This year, our "asks" were actually pretty simple. On the Senate side, we met with the staff of Senator Toomey and Senator Casey (separately). We were primary talking about H.R. 1791, The Medical Preparedness Allowable Use Act. This bill passed the House in February, and it currently sits in committee in the Senate. It's a pretty simple bill - allows an expansion of approved expenses for the Urban Area Security Initiative grant money to fund chemical/biological countermeasure stockpiles. The money is already there, this just means it can be spent on some more things that could be useful. In the Senate, we also talked about the Field EMS bill, even though there is no companion Senate bill yet. Finally, we asked for the Senators to consider joining the EMS Caucus.

After leaving our first meeting on the Senate side, we were able to get an escort by an intern from Senator Casey's office, so we were able to make our meetings on the House side without rushing too much. We got to walk along next to the Senate Subway tracks (We didn't wait for a subway car for the trip. Pretty cool tour!

On the House side, we didn't have to talk about H.R. 1791, because it's already passed. Instead, we focused on talking about the "Field EMS Bill" - Officlally: H.R.809 - Field EMS Quality, Innovation, and Cost Effectiveness Improvements Act of 2013. The Field EMS Bill isn't perfect - but it gets us talking about quite a few things, and at least gets us a seat at the table. If you've got a better idea, I'm sure NAEMT would LOVE to hear it... but right now, this is their best one.

We also talked about the EMS Caucus. Although there's a Congressional Fire Service Caucus, there's no group focused on EMS - yet EMS calls for service are often 5:1 fire calls.

I think the easiest sell with that was Congressman Glenn "GT" Thompson from central PA (PA-5). We walked in to the office as the House Bells were sounding, calling representatives to the floor for a vote. His staff explained that the Representative was being called away for a vote, but "He has 5 minutes and wants to see you." He greeted us with "It's good to see fellow EMS personnel here". Turns out, he's been an EMT and Firefighter since the mid-1980's, and still serves when he's home.

Here's a screenshot of a tweet HE sent with our group photo:

Congressman Thompson's staff said that the Representative has apparently stopped at a few car crashes in rural Pennsylvania since being elected and provided initial first aid until EMS arrived, so heads up, Central PA folks - that gentleman who says he's a firefighter and stopped to help might also be your Congressman!

Anyway - I think it was a relatively successful day. Last picture before I sign off - This is Chief Touchstone from Philadelphia FD EMS (and NEMSMA), with his Congressman, Rep. Chaka Fattah (PA-2).

EMS Today 2012 - Part 2

Yesterday was the first full day of EMS Today. My day started at 0830 for Kelly Grayson (@AmboDriver / http://ambulancedriverfiles.com/). His presentation was "EMS Blogging and Social Media: How To Do It and Keep Your Job."

Kelly's presentation was good. It wasn't anything too eye-opening, but he made a link I hadn't thought of before, and pointed out that foursquare and geotagging makes obscuring patient info much more difficult.

Next up was "Report from the Eagles" - not the football team... This is the major metropolitan medical directly group - a bunch of real winners. Topics were many, including that atropine appears to do no good in cardiac arrests, and it actually does harm in asystolic arrests. Also discussed: drug shortages and pushing drugs past the expiry dates.

Presentations from their 2012 meeting (last week) are here: http://gatheringofeagles.us/2012/2012Presentations.htm

Then it was a very interesting afternoon session put on by Doug Wolfberg and Steve Wirth of the PW&W EMS law firm (http://www.pwwemslaw.com/). They discussed the good, bad, and ugly of testifying in court and being cross examined. The class ended with an actual cross examination roleplay. They always told me there are 2 types of EMT's - those that have been to court, and those that will go to court. So while I hope I never have to - its only a matter of time, most likely. Steve and Doug are great speakers, and they lecture at a variety of local an national events. Much of their staff maintains EMS certs, and understands our field. If I ever have to go to court? I sure hope they are my lawyers.

The sessions ended with a keynote by Randolph Mantooth. Lots of "who's he" and "what did he do"?

Randolph Mantooth (Wikipedia) played Johnny Gage on Emergency! (Wikipedia). If you've never seen it, it's on Netflix. Go watch a few episodes. Emergency! did great things in advancing out profession, and the late Jim Page (the P in the PW&W law firm above) was a technical advisor to the program. Yes, it's dated, but it's a great EMS history lesson. If your service hasn't changed much since 1974, perhaps it's time to try to change things!

Actually - one more thing. Before Randy Mantooth spoke, AJ Heightman of JEMS spoke and urged everyone to support the PSOB update bills - its great to see a national publisher getting behind something so great for EMS (I'll post more about the PSOB bill once I'm home next week).

Then we hit the exhibit hall. Got to see the World Premiere of Code STEMI (http://codestemi.tv/). It's a Setla film production, and a great collaboration between PhysioControl (http://www.physio-control.com), Tom Bouthillet and the EMS 12-Lead group (http://ems12lead.com/), Ted Setla (http://setlafilms.com/), and the First Responders Network (http://firstrespondersnetwork.com/codestemi/).

It's a good start. It'll be nice to see the story continue to be told. STEMI's are something we, in EMS, can make a big difference in.

Then it was dinner and bed early - I was tired. I'm bummed I missed the MeetUp/TweetUp over at Uno's, but I needed sleep... Friday will be a long day, I'm sure

EMS Today 2012 - Part 1

I came into Baltimore Wednesday night in time for the EMS 10 awards. It was great to see Tom Bouthillet get an EMS 10 award for the EMS 12-Lead blog (http://ems12lead.com). Oh and let's not forget about the rest of his team - David Baumrind and Christopher Watford.

Congrats to Tom and the rest of the award winners, and a HUGE thank to to PhysioControl for putting on the event and inviting me.


Then it was off to Pratt Street Ale House for the EMS 2.0 reunion. Gotto see Random Ward (haven't seen him for all of 3 days), MedicSBK, Ted Setla, Chris Montera, and the rest of the gang. Also got to meet a fellow Ham Radio geek that I've known online for a few years... Good actually meeting you, James!

Looking forward my first sessions on Thursday.

EMS 2.0 Primer

Ok... blogging again. First post is an EMS 2.0 primer I wrote to a collegiate EMS educator I met at the NCEMSF Conference this year, after attending a very good presentation discussing that EMS will only grow as much as we, as providers, want it to. She'd never heard of EMS 2.0, though. Great minds think alike.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Professor ___,

It was great to see the enthusiasm you have for moving EMS forward... as I said in the session, you are not the only person with similar thoughts. I've been involved in EMS for 10 years, and active in various online forms for much of that time. There are several great web fourms dedicated to EMS, and one of the recurring discussions is the difference in training, professional recognition, and compensation between EMS in the USA, and other countries.

There are MANY EMTs and Paramedics that are active with online blogs, as well as being on web forums and other new social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc). It's amazing that there are many voices in unison saying the same thing – we, as providers, are responsible for helping shape our profession.

A few things I truly think are worth your time online:

EMS 2.0 – Written by a Paramedic from Wisconsin named Chris Kaiser, who writes a blog titled Life Under The Lights (http://lifeunderthelights.com/).

EMS 2.0 seeks to address the issues blocking EMTs and Paramedics from moving forward as a Profession. Built upon the concepts of Technology, Training and Trust, the movement seeks to improve all aspects of emergency services, including community care, disease and injury prevention and opening new avenues for patient care rather than simple transport to an ER.

Chronicles of EMS / Beyond the Lights and Sirens – a ~20 minute short film looking at a fire based urban EMS system from the point of view of both a medic within the system looking for the same change you want, and a English NHS paramedic. The project was instigated by social media, and exchanges between Justin Schorr, who blogs as The Happy Medic (http://happymedic.com/) and Mark Glencorse, who just retired from blogging after several years as 999Medic (http://999medic.com/).

The show is here: http://chroniclesofems.com/reality-series.htm (If you only look at one link, look at this one!).

Lastly, the Chronicles of EMS website has more to say on EMS 2.0:

http://chroniclesofems.com/ems-20.htm

Professor – I actually was able to meet all of the above at EMS Today last year. All are truly great people. There are many providers with a similar vision, united under the concept of EMS 2.0. We are self motivated, and while each of us is a small voice within our respective agencies, we constantly talk online and are able to be self-motivated and help each other. I follow a number of blogs on a daily basis (I am able to read/skim new posts through an application on my phone that syncs from the blog feeds). These blogs help entertain me on my downtime, and engage me in discussion when needed. There is also a great motivation in the knowledge that I am not alone.

If you have ANY questions or there is anything I can do, please feel free to ask.

Jonathan Blatman

Paramedic, West Chester, Pensylvania.