The American Red Cross Mile High Chapter recently launched Save A Life Denver, a program that will allow members of the public to access automatic external defibrillators in an effort to increase the number of people who survive sudden cardiac arrest.

The three-year program, which is among the largest of its kind in the country, is part of an overall preparedness project launching this fall. It is a collaborative effort among the American Red Cross Mile High Chapter, Denver Health, and Philips Healthcare.

The Mile High Chapter is using a grant it received to place 1,000 AED units in public facilities throughout Denver at no cost to eligible businesses. The program also will train 10,000 people in Red Cross CPR and AED skills each year and will offer AEDs for purchase at a discounted rate.

“Save A Life Denver is a unique and worthwhile effort that aims to make AEDs as accessible as fire extinguishers in high use public buildings,” Charley Shimanski, regional CEO of the American Red Cross, said. “We expect Save A Life Denver to become a benchmark for future public access defibrillation programs.”

Sudden cardiac arrest claims more than 300,000 lives each year and is one of the leading causes of death in America. It has been estimated that more than 40,000 lives could be saved each year if AEDs are more widely available.

Philips HeartStart FRx Defibrillators will be used for the program. The machines offer voice commands that tell the responder what steps they should take in order to administer a life-saving shock. The defibrillators then automatically analyze the victim’s heart rhythm and detect whether a shock is needed.

The City of Detroit announced that as of June 25th it would cut 33 EMS jobs, a move that brought criticism from local leaders and citizens. The layoffs even resulted in a rally of 25 emergency services workers at the Detroit Fire Department.

“The city deserves to hear the sounds of sirens,” Wisam Zeineh, president of the Detroit Emergency Medical Services Association, said at the rally. “You have destroyed the lives of the citizens. The blood of the city is on your hands.”

According to an article by The Detroit News, Zeineh thinks the city should have anywhere from 35 to 45 ambulances in operation, which would cover Detroit’s 900,000 residents. However, there will only be 13 to 15 ambulances available after the layoffs, and police officers may soon be responsible for transporting some injured residents.

Part of the reason for the EMS job cuts is that the city is struggling to balance its $3.1 million budget. In addition, 100 police officers will lose their jobs, 77 parks and two neighborhood city halls will close, and many public services will be reduced.

City officials have not yet announced when the police officer layoffs would take place or whether or not any firefighters will lose their jobs as well.

New Hampshire-based Portsmouth Regional Hospital recently launched a program that allows people to use text messaging in order to avoid long waits at the emergency room. PRH and Parkland Medical Center, located in Derry, N.H., are the first hospitals in the state to use the service.

“This new transparency of ER wait times is a celebration of more than 18-months of work by the ER to improve the speed at which we get the patient to the provider to begin their exam,” the hospital notes in a press release. “We know that Seacoast families are busier than ever and that every minute matters when someone is ill or injured. Our team has worked hard to ensure that patients receive quick attention when they most need it and now patients will have visibility to just how quickly they will be seen by the provider.”

Through the program, anyone planning a trip to the ER can text “ER” to 23000 and will receive a response asking for their ZIP code, and then will receive a specific wait time. However, the text messaging service does not act as a reservation for the patient.

Wait times are updated every 30 minutes and are defined as the time between entering the ER and the beginning of the medical examination from a physician, physician assistant or nurse practitioner. The technology has been tested by many Hospital Corporation of America-owned hospitals.

Hospital officials have noted that those facing medical emergencies should not use the service and should instead directly call 911. However, anyone planning to use the ER for non-emergency conditions can use the information to better fit the visit into their own schedule.

Check out this recruiting video about Portsmouth Regional Hospital’s new texting program:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxFsAxLjMhw

Most EMS workers undergo some sort of local or state training to prepare for a career in the field, but job seekers and employees alike should know that a number of federal agencies also offer educational resources to supplement traditional schooling.

Entities such as the Department of Health and Human Resources and FEMA have various offices and programs that can help EMS workers of all skill levels.

Here is a list of government resources for EMS workers, as compiled by EMSResponder.com:

• National Incident Management System – This system provides a structure by which government, non-governmental and private-sector entities can coordinate to prevent, mitigate, respond to and recover from incidents. The NIMS Resource Center – which operates as part of FEMA – created a five-year plan in 2008 to establish an operational basis for NIMS training, including competencies, courses and qualifications. It also contains information on many Homeland Security grant programs that can help agencies train employees. Both the Emergency Management Institute and National Fire Academy offer NIMS-compliant training.
• Department of Health and Human Services – This agency has tons of information on diseases, trauma and the medical implications of terrorism. The department includes such branches as the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, which offers guidance on public health emergency response and crisis communications; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which serves as a responder’s main source for disease information; and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which maintains an Emergency Preparedness and Response page with resources for terrorism, natural disasters, and site management.
• Office of EMS – This is a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration office and the official federal site for all things EMS. It has content related to the National EMS Information System and the EMS workforce, as well as a comprehensive list of federal agencies and offices with EMS responsibilities. Some of those include the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; the Health Resources and Services Administration; the Office of  Rural Health Policy’s EMS for Children; the Federal Communications Commission and public-safety broadband information; and the General Services Administration’s ambulance purchase standard.
• FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau – The Bureau’s First Responder page lists such resources as guidelines for emergency planning, while the Clearinghouse page has emergency, interoperability and continuity plans; case studies and best practices; and grant information.

Some other good resources include FEMA’s Citizen Corps, which offers Community Preparedness Webinars with partners such as the American Red Cross; FEMA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s interactive flood map; and the Lessons Learned Information Sharing platform, which allows responders to share information with each other.

The Louisville Metro Community Action Partnership recently awarded $2.4 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding to Louisville Metro EMS. The funding is being used to train and certify local residents as emergency medical technicians.

A group of eight students has been undergoing this training since January, and once finished, they will be able to apply for EMT jobs with an ambulance service, Metro EMS or another related position.

Prior to receiving the funding, CAP held training classes for certified nurse assistants, but the stimulus money is allowing the organization to expand its programs. In addition to EMTs, students also can take training to become truck drivers and dental assistants, among other occupations.

So far, a total of 100 students have participated in the six programs that are being paid for by the stimulus funding, which must be spent by September 30. Other classes are being scheduled for the near future, with an additional 70 students expected to participate.

In order to become involved in any of the programs offered by CAP, students must meet certain income guidelines, live in Jefferson County, have a letter of recommendation, and write an essay. CAP paid about $1,100 per student for the EMT class, which covers the cost of tuition, books and a uniform.

Maj. Mike will, who is conducting the training, told the Louisville Courier-Journal that he has been inspired by those participating in the class, because many of them have had to overcome obstacles in order to succeed. Students have to deal with child care, a lack of transportation, financial strains and the heavy course load.

“It’s the most impressive thing I’ve seen in my life as an EMT instructor,” he said. “These folks are my heroes.”

Earthquakes are one of the hardest disasters to respond to, because unlike hurricanes and floods, they cannot be predicted. However, a new warning system could alert residents that the ground will begin shaking in 10 to 15 seconds.

Although that doesn’t sound like a lot of time, it’s long enough for people to leave a hazardous environment; technology to go into safe mode or save an important document; elevators to stop at the next floor and open their doors; and trains to decelerate.

According to an article by Emergency Management, seismologists and the U.S. Geological Survey are currently working to provide California with a publicly available early warning earthquake system.

“The idea is (to) detect the beginnings of the earthquake, and then rapidly assess the magnitude that earthquake poses, and provide a warning to people before the shaking starts,” Richard Allen, seismology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said. “We’re talking about very short periods of time – a few seconds to a few tens of seconds.”

California isn’t the first place to develop such a system, as the Japan Meteorological Agency launched the most advanced early warning system to date during 2007. That system provides alerts through media outlets and Internet applications. Mexico City, Turkey, Taiwan and Romania also have established similar systems.

The early warning systems work by detecting primary waves, or the first tremors of an earthquake that travel about 1 to 5 mph, before the secondary waves begin causing damage. As the secondary waves move more slowly, people would have more time to take precautions following the alert.

The California project began in 2006 when the USGS provided $900,000 in funding to take the algorithms that various groups had developed for earthquake prediction and use them on real-time seismic systems. Three of those algorithms consistently detected earthquakes and predicted the two largest quakes in the state during the three-year test period.

Another two-year testing phase began in 2009 when the USGS provided $1.2 million in funding, which is being used to develop the California Integrated Seismic Network ShakeAlert System a prototype system that provides a warning to a small group of users.

The County of Los Angeles Fire Museum Board of Directors will host the Inaugural Pioneers of Paramedicine Lifetime Achievement Awards Gala on May 8. The event will honor four of the doctors who conceived the paramedic idea and were present for the origination of modern emergency medical services.

The day before the gala, the four will meet for the first time in decades to share their stories on video. That video will then serve as the first in a planned series of “Pioneers” videos, which will be of significant historic importance to the EMS profession.

According to an article by EMS Responder, the four doctors slated to be honored at the presentation include:

• Eugene Nagel, MD – who was medical director for the City of Miami Department of Fire-Rescue’s rescue operation from 1964 to 1974. During those 10 years, he developed the first paramedic program utilizing telemetry and voice medical control rather than the practice of a physician or nurse riding with paramedics.
• Leonard Cobb, MD – who became the director of cardiology at Harborview Medical Center in 1963 and a professor of medicine in 1971. He worked in collaboration with the Seattle fire chief and others to establish the first paramedic-staffed mobile intensive care unit in Seattle.
• J. Michael Criley, MD – who was chief of the Division of Cardiology at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles for 20 years. He founded the Los Angeles County Paramedic Program in 1969. He has been on the full-time faculty at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center for 42 years and is Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Radiological Sciences at the UCLA School of Medicine.
• Walter Graf, MD – who was a cardiologist at Daniel Freeman Hospital in Los Angeles and a strong proponent of a mobile care unit for Los Angeles. With grant funds provided by the local chapter of the American Heart Association, he launched a Mobile Coronary Care Unit based on the Pantridge model in 1969 – a fully equipped vehicle staffed by nurses who were empowered to start intravenous infusions, administer drugs and defibrillate.

Randolph Mantooth – the museum’s honorary chair who also portrayed LA County firefighter and paramedic Johnny Gage in the 1970s TV series Emergency! – has been working to keep the history of paramedicine alive and tell the story of the journey of EMS in America.

The idea came about after Mantooth traveled the country to speak about the history of paramedics and the people whose vision changed the face of emergency medicine. During that time he noticed that many younger EMS professionals have little to no knowledge of EMS history and even less interest in preserving it.

Mantooth and the Museum’s board of directors hope the gala will help change that.

A recent article from Wired.com is reporting that could be the case. The Pentagon is currently looking into implementing an autonomous EMS crew, along with an unmanned ambulance and robodocs, to aid fallen troops with minimal intervention by medic or other first responder operators.

“In a war zone, evacuating patients under fire is one of the most dangerous jobs there is,” the article notes. “That’s why the Pentagon’s hoping to capitalize on recent innovations in robotics to finally create ‘bots that operate as ‘combat casualty extraction system(s).’”

Many benefits could result from such a system. First, replacing humans who deliver medical care to wounded soldiers would reduce the number of people at risk during rescue operations. Second, the Army is counting on new technology to deliver better care, such as free-ranging robots with human-like movement and legs that can jump 25 feet.

Although research of such a system has been going on for years, the Army wants to implement robots that are “more autonomous, tough as nails and small enough to fit into an unmanned vehicle.”

Those robots would be able to plan and execute transportation routes; facilitate communication between patients and off-site human medics; coordinate “robot teams”; lift, drag or otherwise remove a troop from harm’s way; and figure out how serious a soldier’s injuries are.

The Army reports the robots would be able to “perform remote/stand-off initial casualty assessment to identify injuries sufficient to prevent further injury during robotic casualty extraction,” and “provide closed loop or semi-autonomous casualty monitoring and en route care sufficient to mitigate risk associated with ‘abandonment’ concerns.”

If robot teams become as powerful as the Army hopes, they will be able to extract casualties from rugged terrain, marshes or ice, and even through “enemy fire or IEDs, contamination from weapons of mass destruction, or any of numerous natural hazards.”

The Army also is considering the possibility of robots working in conjunction with unmanned vehicles, which would effectively create an all-in-one robot rescue crew.

If any or all of these ideas come to fruition, the robot EMS system could potentially be using for other applications, including “civilian emergency services for recovering injured personnel in mine, construction site and nuclear power plant accidents; chemical spills; fire fighting, terrorist, hostage situations; and in police response to situations involving armed suspects.”

The Hazard Assessment and Response Management course at the Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston, Ala., is offering hands-on training that provides mental and physical challenges to emergency responders.

The HARM course provides emergency responders with a realistic operational WMD environment where students operate within the incident command system and decide procedures, equipment and their tactical approach to an emergency event.

The training course requires students to demonstrate solid response skills while providing parameters and developing plans for a hazardous materials or weapons of mass destruction response. According to an article by EMS Responder, the course provides response personnel with a scenario, but it’s up to the students to determine the tempo and plan their response.

“All CDP courses have instructors directly involved with training,” Rick Dickson, assistant director of training delivery, said. “In HARM our instructors step back and let the students make the decisions. Sometimes the students meet with difficulty; other times they succeed immediately. Ultimately, the information and learning tools they gain are invaluable. This course is about as real as it gets for WMD or hazardous materials training.”

Before taking the course, students must first have taken Incident Command System 100 and 200, and successfully completed the WMD Technical Emergency Response Training, WMD HazMat Technician or WMD Hands-On-Training within the past 36 months.

The course, which lasts three days, consists of up to 45 responders from multiple disciplines and jurisdictions with different levels of training and experience. The students are responsible for appointing their incident commander and determining response elements based on the number of students and response background of each person.

Each day of the course includes:

• Day one – The teams choose their equipment, determine their level of competency and conduct individual and collective refresher training in preparation for their mission.
• Day two – The response element must conduct life safety actions, determine the toxicity within the complex, mitigate the threat, and identify and contain any toxic spills.
• Day three – The teams mitigate and contain CBRNE material consisting of nerve agents. The HARM course incorporates the CDP’s toxic agent facility that allows for hands-on training using actual nerve agents.

An industrial inquiry commission working under the Province of British Columbia recently submitted a report to CUPE Local 873, the union representing the Emergency and Health Services Commission, as well as its paramedics and dispatchers.

Commissioner Chris Trumpy, acting as a one-person commission under the B.C. Labour Relations Code, completed the report, which is non-binding and only meant to provide options for further consideration by government to help improve service delivery and the structure of collective bargaining.

“Mr. Trumpy has submitted a thoughtful and comprehensive report that will help inform the broader discussion about redesigning the B.C. Ambulance Service and the bargaining relationship between paramedics and their employer,” Murray Coell, minister of labour, said. “I have forwarded the report to my colleague, Minister of Health Services Kevin Falcon, who will be reviewing it.”

The report found the British Columbia Ambulance Service currently employs 1,485 full-time staff members, with a median age of 46, and 2,129 part-time staff members, with a median age of 39. Overall attrition remains relatively low, while staffing rural and remote stations remains a growing challenge.

Other highlights of the report include:

• An examination of the collective bargaining structure in the ambulance service, including: the delivery of ambulance services by way of an independent commission under the Emergency and Health Services Act; the transfer of ambulance services to the health sector as either an independent commission or integrated into an existing service delivery structure in accordance with the Health Authorities Act; and service redesign to facilitate greater alignment with municipal fire services.
• Examination of a number of items specifically requested by CUPE Local 873, including: staff recruitment; training and retention; staff workload and occupational health and safety issues; and deployment strategies in comparison with other Canadian ambulance service delivery models.
• A comparison of paramedic and dispatcher compensation across Canadian jurisdictions based on: wages; premiums for hours worked and hours on-call in rural and remote areas; and benefits, including health benefits, welfare benefits and pension plan.

Check out this recruiting video from CUPE: