Just when it seemed that the 113th U.S. Congress would not be able to agree on anything, legislators passed the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2013 (H.R. 307) with remarkable speed. Introduced in the House on .Jan. 18, 2013, by Michigan Representative Mike Rogers, the bill was passed four (lays later. It sailed […]
EMS Analysis Wang HE, Mann, NC, Jacobson KE, et al. National characteristics of emergency medical services responses in the U.S. Prehos Emerg Care. 2013;17(1):8–14. Despite its prominence and history, only limited data exists to describe the national characteristics of EMS care in the U.S. To illustrate out-of-hospital EMS care in this country, researchers conducted an […]
Troy Hagen, MBA, EMT-P, has been named the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Care Ambulance Service in Southern California. Formerly the Ada County (Idaho) paramedics director, Hagen assumed the new role in January. Although Hagen doesn’t expect to create systemic change, he hopes to look for ways to continue to move the organization […]
A change in the structure of the National Emergency Medical Services Advisory Council (NEMSAC) gives the federal government’s only EMS advisory council permanence and clout. NEMSAC was modified from a discretionary advisory council to a statutory advisory council as part of the Department of Transportation (DOT) reauthorization legislation that was passed last summer. When NEMSAC […]
In January, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights announced a final rule that implements a number of provisions to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. The changes, designed to strengthen the privacy and security protections for health information, incorporate rules from the Health Information […]
On Nov. 19, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a Class I recall for certain HeartSine Samaritan 300/300P PAD devices. The devices have been found to intermittently turn on and off, which may eventually deplete the battery. In addition and separately, certain Samaritan 300/300P PAD devices containing early versions of the battery management […]
Expert panel recommends higher safety standard Blood pressures are rising over a move by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to classify automated external defibrillators (AEDs) as a Class III high-risk medical device, requiring a more rigorous pre-market approval (PMA) application process. According to a spokesperson for the FDA, the agency is continuing to work […]
Florida fire departments launch innovative stroke consortium (This is Part I of a two-part series highlighting stroke systems of care across the country.) In 2005, the National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP) recommended that every EMS system have plans and protocols for identifying, treating and transporting stroke patients. This plan, they said, should focus on […]
Thefts concerns more than just the EMS industry An increase in the number of unoccupied ambulance thefts was recently brought to the attention of the Central Florida Intelligence eXchange (CFIX), a regional fusion center. In October, the CFIX released a situation brief on the growing trend. After examining case studies of ambulance thefts from across […]
American Medical Response Inc. (AMR) announced the departure of president Mark Bruning, effective Jan. 14. William A. Sanger, chief executive officer (CEO) of AMR’s parent company, Emergency Medical Services Corporation, has stepped in as interim president. Bruning, 54, began his 30-year career at AMR as an EMT and holds the distinction of being the first […]
Teresa McCallion, EMT-B, is the editor of EMS Insider and frequent contributor to JEMS Magazine and JEMS.com. She worked for many years as a newspaper journalist and served as a volunteer for her local fire department.
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