New innovative ideas for EMS

[parawhat]

So you were just asked to submit ideas to boost your EMS agency in the community. What ideas would you submit. I have come up with a few ideas to play with but I am drawing a blank now. (Community paramedicine is already in place) 

[Just Plain Ruff]

Is EMS in the schools a thing in your area?  

What kind of PR events do you do?  

 

[parawhat]

We do not have EMS in the schools that was one of my ideas to do a recruiting system and education days for younger kids. 

 

Our PR includes attending seniors events, hosting CPR courses for the community. Community paramedicine. We do health and wellness checks (vs and education). 

[Arctickat]

Just so I am clear, are you defining Community Paramedicine as doing Health and Wellness checks, checking vital signs and educating clients?

One project we've been working on is prehospital ultrasound.

[parawhat]

No, that is just some PR, the well checks and such

our community paramedicine includes home visits, follow up on disease processes, safety inspections, etc. 

interesting! Can you tell me more about that program? 

[paramatt_]

To make coming up with ideas easier, it would probably be a good idea to give a basic overview of what type of service you work for. Things like pt demographics, urban, rural, or whatever, any major trends in call-out types, other services available such as hospitals and community services, etc. You will probably find a number of gaps that your service can potentially fill or assist in in someway or another whether clinical or surrounding education or health promotion programs.

[parawhat]

Absolutely! We are small rural EMS service. The majority of it calls are elderly with exacerbation of medical conditions. We do run IFTs as well. We have a couple major highways in our district. We staff around 20-30 people. Our call volume is around 120,000 a year. Honestly we don't get a lot of the 911 abuse calls (the come change my kitty litter things) there are no community service projects immediately in our area about a 20 minute drive out of district will being to yield a small amount. And 45 mins out will yield a ton. Our major hospitals are 45 mins a way. Local hospitals are level 3 and 4s.  we are extremely community oriented. 

[Just Plain Ruff]

Ok, so you run 120K calls a  year with 30 people, you guys must get your butts handed to you on a regular basis. That's 328 calls a day.  Are you sure your call volume numbers are right?  that makes 13 calls an hour.  did you mean to type 12000 calls a year and not 120,000???

Or do you staff 30 people a day?  that would make a difference.  NOt busting your balls on your numbers but jeesh that's a lot of calls.  I think KC Mo runs about 80 thousand a year and they staff 35 ambulances a day I think and maybe more.  

But to your question 

Why not promote EMS to the local scouting organizations and I'm not just saying Boy Scouts of America,  look to the Trail LIfe USA and the American Heritage Girls as well as Girl Scouts.  

We are having a huge camp out on April 1st and we are bringing in the local police, fire and helicopter for a PR event.  

[parawhat]

Bahaha! I knew that number didn't feel right. I am sorry. I am very sick today and my brain is not here. We break around 1200. Between 0-5 calls a day. I apologize again.  Idk what hit me today but yuck! 

Thank you for those ideas! I had not thought of that yet!  I appreciate it! Thanks for checking my numbers. We are a slow paced service. We have a lot of time for community related things. 

[medicgirl05]

Some ideas from when I worked for a very similar service...

A monthly newspaper column taking about whatever is happening...as in heat related emergencies in the summer, the importance of having the address visible, importance of car seats. We had lots of people come and talk to us about the articles and it was a great way for the community to SEE us, if you know what I mean.

Another thing, we had student athletic trainers at the local high school. We would go once a year and teach them different things(bandaging, backboarding-when it was a thing-, splinting, proper lifting). We found this was a good group of people to reach out to as some of them had true interest in EMS. We encouraged them to drop by the station with any questions and some of them really seemed to enjoy that.