Owner aboard ambulance, dog stows away The hospital was an hour’s drive from the patient’s home. Mason County (Texas) EMT Tanner Brown and and his partner were 20 miles into the trip when a motorist flagged them down and told them there was a dog on the side of the ambulance. As reported by Michelle […]
Md. county builds $50M EMS center At the dedication of the county’s new 110,000 square-foot EMS center, local officials in Harford County, Maryland observed how “public safety often gets put on the back burner,” and how local emergency response systems tend to go unnoticed — until they are needed. And so it was with justifiable […]
Claims responders are treated like ‘disposable heroes’ Practically by definition, emergency responders are regularly exposed to gut-wrenching scenes in the line of duty. The lingering effects of such exposure is well-documented in military personnel, many of whom struggle with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) when they return from active duty. But paramedic Joanne Trofanenko discovered that, […]
12 years of training prepared team for duty There are risky patient transports. And then there are transports where the patient has an infectious disease that kills roughly half the people who contract it. Wade Miles, interim director of Grady Hospital Emergency Medical Services in Atlanta, GA, has led a team that specializes in the […]
Paramedic reflects on the good and the bad When his back started to require more attention on some calls than his patients, Mike Rubin decided to walk away from active EMS duty while he still could. In an article on emsworld.com, Rubin talks about the aspects of being a paramedic that he will miss — […]
How to recognize feigned illness or injury Abuse of EMS comes in all forms. Earlier this month, a Lake Placid, NY man called for an ambulance because he was “too drunk to walk home.” Similar stories abound of those who, for one reason or another, view the EMS system as a free taxi service. Writing […]
The human cost of testing one’s mettle Steve Whitehead, a Colorado firefighter/paramedic, posted an article on ems1.com recently that urged those new to the job to never forget the lasting, human costs that underlie their daily professional activities. Whitehead remembers his own eagerness to test his mettle when he was just starting out. “At the […]
Near death, he wanted to be near nature EMS personnel know too well the frustration and heartbreak that typically attend the last hours of a victim’s life. So it was a welcome change for EMS with the Snohomish County Fire District when they were called in to help grant a dying man his last wish […]
Although trauma care has come a long way over the past 30 years, trauma is still one of the leading causes of death in any age group, writes Ryan Gerecht, MD, CMTE in the April, 2014 issue of the Journal of Emergency Medical Services. A common cause of death in patients with traumatic injuries is […]
Patient experience impacts all in healthcare system “We’re arguably at the most pivotal time in our young profession,” write Doug Hooten and Matt Zavadsky in an article on jems.com, the website of the Journal of Emergency Medical Services. “The ACA [Affordable Care Act] has provided EMS an unprecedented opportunity to become a part of the […]
