At the end of 2012, the U.S. Congress narrowly averted the “fiscal cliff” and in the process, delivered a welcome Christmas gift to EMS providers—another year of bonus payments. One-year extension On Jan. 2, 2013, President Barack Obama signed the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (H.R. 8) into law. Among the many items in […]
States that permit paramedics to assist in vaccination clinics should be aware of a revised document that defines and provides supporting references to the Immunization Information System (IIS) Functional Standards for 2013-2017. These standards—developed by the Immunization Information Systems Support Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its division, the National Center for Immunization […]
Chicago providers tackle a citywide challenge (This is port two of a two-part series highlighting stroke systems of care across the country.) Establishing a new stroke protocol for even a small EMS agency can be a challenge. Imagine the Herculean task of implementing a stroke system of care in Chicago, a city of nearly 3 […]
The headline on the Save Hearts in Arizona Registry & Education (SHARE) website says that hands-only CPR really works. But it’s the ticker showing the number—1,016 as of press time—that really impresses. That’s the number of lives saved in Arizona since 2005, when SHARE was established by the Arizona Department of Health Services Bureau of Emergency Medical Services and Trauma System and the University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center. Its purpose is to promote a comprehensive, standardized system of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest care throughout Arizona, encompassing all “links” in the chain of survival.
Although emergency responders are becoming increasingly better educated about the appropriate use of lights and sirens, the public has often been left in the dark. Recently MONOC Mobile Health Services, a non-profit hospital cooperative consisting of 15 acute care hospitals located throughout New Jersey, completed a public service announcement (PSA) video outlining the misconceptions and dangers of emergency siren use. The short video addresses the common practice of lights-and-siren use on most EMS calls. It also refers to the many studies that have shown speed to be of little value in the patient’s outcome.
The National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (NREMT) Board of Directors announced the selection of Severo (Tre) Rodriguez III, MS, AEMCA, NREMT-P, as the new executive director, effective January of this year. Rodriguez replaces William Brown, Jr., RN, MS, CEN, NREMT-P.
For the first time, an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) addresses issues regarding EMS reimbursement policies. The article, “Realigning Reimbursement Policy and Financial Incentives to Support Patient-Centered Out-of-Hospital Care,” by Kevin Munjal, MD, MPH, and Brendan Carr, MD, MS, outlines the current fee-for-transport system and makes recommendations for changes based on a more cost-effective, patient-centered approach.
For the first time, an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) addresses issues regarding EMS reimbursement policies. The article, “Realigning Reimbursement Policy and Financial Incentives to Support Patient-Centered Out-of-Hospital Care,” by Kevin Munjal, MD, MPH, and Brendan Carr, MD, MS, outlines the current fee-for-transport system and makes recommendations for changes based on a more cost-effective, patientcentered approach.
Few diseases represent the kind of opportunity for EMS systems to affect survival than sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). A significant number of recent studies have documented reliable measures responders can take to improve SCA survival rates.1,2,3 In fact, the research has led to changes in the guidelines for how to perform more effective CPR.
The 2011 National Emergency Medical Services Information System (NEMSIS) Public-Release Research Dataset is now available. The current dataset includes 14,371,941 EMS activations submitted by 35 states and territories during 2011. As with all NEMSIS datasets, the most current release doesn’t contain information that identifies patients, EMS agencies, receiving hospitals or reporting states. Datasets for 2008, 2009 and 2010 will continue to be available by request.
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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