Medic2891

As a medic that has worked in an er I can tell you it is nothing more than adrenaline as someone has previously stated. I know this is funny but I use the song Stayin Alive as my meter for rate. It is exactly 100 bpm. I have passed this on to some of the EMT's that I work with and have caught them humming or singing it to themselves while doing compressions.

WOW, I am so sorry to hear about your trials and tribulations. I wish you the best of luck through it all, and know that you are in my thoughts.

As I have been in EMS for 14 years in NJ, I am WELL aware of that office and it's web site, however it is UNDER the Dept. of Health and Human Services and NOT considered an essential function. The office needs to be all by itself not under another dept. as it currently sits.

For those of you that are not familiar with what a podcast is, it is basically a recorded radio type of show that you can download to your iPod and listen to when you want. You can also listen to most if not all of these shows on your computer, so no iPod or mp3 player is required. I wanted to share with you all a show that I have been listening to for 6 months or so and think that some or all of you would enjoy it as much as I have. The show is called the Medic Cast. It can be found at [web:d88327e45f]http://www.mediccast.com[/web:d88327e45f]. Now I know that the show is called the medic cast, but he does a great job of breaking things down so that anyone can understand what he is talking about. This is a great way for those medic students out there, or even the EMT's that are thinking of becoming a medic or even those EMT's that just want a better idea of what we as medics are doing, to get some great information. Well, check it out and see what you think. I am comfortable saying that I think you will not be disappointed.

ok, so it is my idea for a solution to the problem with EMS in the state. I just wanted to post it here since it is loosely being discussed in another thread and I thought that some of you could offer some other or even better ideas then mine. I think that the state needs to strip the First Aid Council of it's power that it has as an entity. NJ as a state needs to recognize EMS as an essential function, and ALS needs to be provided at the county or in some instances the municipality level. First of all, the first aid council in NJ has WAY too much power. They oversee all volunteer first aid squads in the state. They set the regulations and requirements for operating as such. These regulations, the last I checked, didn't even require someone on the ambulance to be an EMT. This needs to stop TODAY! Sure there will be a lot of squads out there that are not able to respond anymore, but I want someone on the truck with me that has had some semblance of "professional" training. These squads with no EMT on the truck does not allow me as a medic to release to BLS because there is no BLS and I am stuck treating a patient that does not need the higher level of care. This is preventing me from getting out and treating the patient that does need me. Secondly, NJ needs to create the Office of EMS on the State level. Remove it from being under the dept. of health and senior services. The way it is currently set up, caused it to be CLOSED last summer when the state offices shut down because of the mandate from the governor when they were hashing out the budget. How can you shut down such an IMPORTANT office? "Borrow" the money from the training fund and create the office. The money that you "borrow" will be replaced wuick enough because it is replenished from the vehicle registrations in NJ. It won't take long for the money to return to it's current level. Thirdly, I think that the current certificate of need process is out dated and needs to be eliminated. Currently where I live, there are 3 large municipalities performing BLS care for the citizens of their respective towns, and they could all very easily support their own ALS capable units. There are however many other municipalities in the state that do not have that ability and for those I recommend that there be a county based system set up with exceptions for those municipalities that want to provide the service themselves and can handle the expense of doing such. If you have a county based ALS response system then you can almost always be sure that you have enough units for your population size in your county. Plus for those areas that have municipalities providing ALS care, then the county itself would need less units, potentially saving the county money. I would also keep the current response system in place where it is a 2 tiered system. That way, there are no changes really at all on the volunteer level or even the BLS level for most of the towns in the rest of the state. This I think would cause the least impact to the services being provided. I even think that this would actually increase service quality while decreasing response times. Well, I think that covers the basics to what my thoughts are on this subject. Let me know what you think and also if you have other ideas on where this plan could be improved, let me know. I am curious to see what kind of responses I get to this post.

Mediccjh, here is where the system in NJ, would work. We, as ALS providers, do not get dispatched to the "BLS" call even if we are in transport capable units. The only calls that we are dispatched on are the typical "ALS" calls. So being in a mini mod or similar would not prevent me from going to the next call. I will say however that doing this would in fact open up a can of worms with the local squads. They would feel threatened by this. Just look at the response that is going on all the time with monoc. Look at the problems that they have created by doing this very thing. The ambulance is nice in some respects but, I'll take my suburban any day. Now you ask, how do we fix the system. I'll put up my idea for comment and see what you all think in another post, titled similar, because I do not want to hijack this thread.

eMedic is a nice program with everything from abbreviations to pictures of different things to the ability to edit treatment protocols so they are your very own.

I wish we had a system like this. All the hospitals in my area are too busy to play with a system like this. They are all still using the white board and in some cases even that doesn't work and they just say take that hall bed right there. It would be really nice thought to have something like this. It might lessen some of the confusion as to who has what and who is discharging and so on.

I have lifted a 450+ pound patient with just one other person. If people would learn to use the stretcher to their advantage and evenly distribute the weight it would not be a problem. Try this. The next time you lift a person on the stretcher, instead of lifting from the "traditional" head to toe position, stand on the side of the stretcher. There is a handle on the side to release the wheels there. You and one other person can lift a much heavier weight by lifting in this side position then you can the other way. You are using the physics of the stretcher and your legs better in this position. Let me know what you think after you try this.

There are lifts that are being installed in trucks for obese patients only, however I think that if they are installed on trucks that are for everyday use, then we are going to see a lot of weaker EMT's and Medics out there and that is not a good thing. I deal with a squad that has some people on it that are always asking for help lifting because they "can't do it". If you can't lift 75 pounds or so by yourself then you have no place on the ambulance, in my opinion of course.

Quite the interesting question you pose. For me, I would have to say that the determining time limit is different with patient history. Someone over 65 with a long history, and found with a 5-10 minute down time with no CPR or BLS only I might call right away if found in Asystole. Someone younger say 55 and under with little to no history and I might work someone with a 15-20 minute down time. So unfortunately, I would have to say that this is a loaded question, and the answers will differ. But I would guess that the consensus might be similar to mine.

I agree what is a save, and I think that this is going to be addresses by all in the thread that asks just that. However, I work in a similar demographic area and can tell you that sure we see a lot of "saves (return of spontaneous circulation) at the ER but they never make it out of the ER. I think that this should be tabled until we come to a consensus about what a save truly is, and then revisit this.

I am of the opinion that a CPR save is one that leaves the hospital and has some type of regular life afterwards. I have been in EMS for 14 years and this has been the general definition that I have always followed. In my time as an EMT and then a Paramedic I think I have only 3 saves that meet this definition and of those one of them is actually a trauma code. I can try to give you more info if you would like, just let me know. [/font:349938f4f8]

Come on it's MONOC, they are also crying poor, yet managed to post a profit for 2006. How do you do that? Just ask Vince. I also like the legislation that he is trying to get through the state congress. He is trying to make it ok for "transporting 3rd service parties (this only includes MONOC) to transport the Medicare/Medicaid patient" instead of the current way. Talk about starting fights in the streets over who is going to transport an patient. I can't wait to see what happens next. You would think the board that is his boss would just get ride of him already and put someone else in there that isn't going to cause so many problems.

Very funny! Unfortunately if we don't die first this will more then likely happen to each and every one of us at one time or another. Hey it has already begun on some of us already.

The system that he is "working" in is this. It is a BLS ambulance with and ALS chase vehicle. I am quite certain that the saves he is referring to are pulses at arrival in ER, and he is also probably on a volunteer squad and even more possibly a cadet. In NJ, the system is two tiered, BLS ambulance and ALS chase vehicle. EMT's in NJ can only pump and blow. There are no provisions for them to do anything more then that. The other problem about the intelligence level in EMT's these days is this, they just have no common sense. I think that this is pretty evident by the posts. I am not trying to be mean but I work in NJ and have for many years and know the system all too well.