Tuesday, July 1, 2025

Greetings from Florida - My Notes from the 2025 EMS Gathering of Eagles Meeting



So here we are again. For many years I have taken notes at this particular meeting and have made them available to any EMS provider or manager willing to take the time to read them. There is a lot written below, so I am going to get straight to the disclaimer and not add any more reading time. Please remember that these are my raw notes with only one pass at spelling, grammar, and content correction. Take them as they are. I have tried to relay the speakers’ intent and key points in each summation, but this is never a perfect process. Enjoy!


Eagles 2025 – Hollywood, Florida – Seminole Hard Rock Hotel/Casino

 

Day One

 

Pepe – Intro – Discusses history of the Eagles. FDMs are the final decision makers on what happens in EMS. The medical directors represented at Eagles cover nearly one third of the American population. Thanks everyone for being here.

 

Antevy – Intro – Welcomes everyone to southern Florida. Next year the conference will be at the Broward convention center to the east of the current location.

 

Augustine – Intro – It has been a challenging five years. A lot of different challenges in serving our communities from a lot of different directions. Thanks to Paul Pepe for keeping this show on schedule.

 

Goodloe – ACEP welcome to Eagles. Pepe discusses an 1891 art image of a physician watching over a patient at a home bedside with Goodloe. “That’s what we do, we go there, watch, and deliver care.”

 

Caruso – Welcomes everyone on behalf of the fire community in the area. “Soaring to New Heights” is the motto of Eagles this year.

 



Colwell – The Pentagon Papers: Five Most Important Publications of the Past Year – Could not get it down to five papers so he is doing five topics. Trauma resuscitation – TXA prehospital, significant survival benefit with no increase in complications. There was a dose specific improvement in mortality with the 2 gram dosage. 1 gram does not work very well. Weak evidence for use in brain injury. Strong evidence for prehospital administration in hemorrhagic trauma. TXA and blood combined with prevention of hypothermia, early hemorrhage control and limited fluid resuscitation save lives. ACLS in trauma - CPR in trauma patients?  Literature set is growing on ACLS use in trauma. Should we be doing it? Epi in trauma patients? Does not appear to improve outcomes. Prehospital vital signs  - vital signs are extremely important for comparison with emergency department vital signs in predictive value. Abnormal vital signs in the field predict serious injuries. The article was mainly regarding children. Traumatic Pneumothorax – 42% of prehospital needle decompressions did not have a pneumothorax. 30-92% did not reach the pleural space. C-collars – C-collars analyzed in children. Very few have injuries. C-collars torture patients. Not sure if the c-collar provides any benefit. Using it a lot with a lot of evidence that we do not need this tool. No studies showing benefit. There is proof of harm. Ditch the c-collar whenever we can.

 

Weston/Miramontes – Why Do EMS Systems Need to Become More Attentive, More Involved, and More Assertive in Managing Perinatal/Postpartum Emergencies? 160/110 for only 15 minutes can cause end organ damage from 20 weeks before to 6 weeks postpartum. Severe hypertension is fairly common in this group. If you don’t look for it you may not find it. Very few will have hypertension as the chief complaint. We are missing severe, damaging, hypertension in our prehospital cases. Pathophysiology of preeclampsia: a disorder of widespread endothelial malfunction and vasospasm. If the baby does not get what it needs, it gets pissed off and releases hormones that affect the mother. Six weeks postpartum is a time frame that is a big deal for maternal deaths. Preeclampsia can happen postpartum. SBP DBP ENTER FROM SLIDE. Use Mag Sulfate in the midrange and Mag Sulfate and antihypertensives in the high range. Labetalol, Hydralazine, and Nifedipine are suggested as choices. Nifedipine is used orally in some BLS systems. Postpartum hemorrhage is a big deal. Oxytocin is still recommended, and the studies show it works. Patients should go to appropriate facilities.

 

 

Mackey – What are “OB Deserts” in Maternal Healthcare – OB Destinations – MIH Roles: An OB desert is defined as a county that has no hospitals providing OB care, no birth centers, no OB/GYN and no midwives. 35% of US counties have zero OB care. 217 maternity wards have been closed since 2011.  29% of critical access rural hospitals are on the verge of immediate closure. Reasons? There is a shortage of OB/GYN physicians. OB is not financially viable for most hospitals. High cost of malpractice insurance. We need community birthing centers. We also need to attract OB/GYN physicians through better insurance reimbursement and loan forgiveness. Support at expand use of midwives and MIH Community Paramedics.

 

Colwell – How Should We Deal with precipitous Deliveries and Other Acute OB Emergencies: Normal deliveries have very little participation. Do normal procedures, dry baby and keep warm. Biggest issues? Breech 4%, Shoulder Dystocia 3%, and prolapsed cord. Describes a twin breech vaginal delivery. Complete, Footing and Frank are types of breech deliveries. Do not pull. Hands off until umbilicus is delivered. Once umbilicus is delivered, we can assist using the Mauriceau Maneuver. Shoulder Dystocia. Look for the turtle sign. Several maneuvers available that each take 30 seconds. If one does not work move to the next. McRoberts maneuver, Wood’s Corkscrew maneuver, and the Gaskin maneuver can all be used. Consider episiotomy. Umbilical Cord Prolapse: Must be decompressed. Insert fingers to keep baby off the cord. Think about these before they happen. We must be able to intervene.

 

Bradley – How Should We Navigate Sudden 911 Responses to Birthing centers? When a birthing center calls 911 things are not going well. The wheels are coming off the bus when they call. These are high liability risk with adverse outcomes possible. Interactions with high stress staff can be stressful. What is the licensing/oversight of the facility? Cases currently across the US. Work collaboratively with the birthing center. Play nice in the sandbox and kill them with kindness. Know when to escalate reporting of issues. There is an AABC toolkit available to these facilities that discusses working with EMS. Document everything on these calls. Be detailed and factual. Avoid stating your opinions.

 

Maternal Missions Panel – Ramos/Weston/Miramontes/Mackey/Colwell/Bradley – Diana Ramos is the Surgeon General for California. Discusses fetal mortality in the US. Describes a case with a patient with severe symptomology and the fact that no one asked if she was pregnant. Follow up on maternal patients is an issue. There may be a lack of resources available to the patient for postpartum follow up as well. Miramontes states that he has 11 lines of care going within his MIH program. Postpartum is one of them. We don’t know the social determinants of health that affect each patient as we do not see their house and living conditions in the ER, but the paramedics do know it and see it. We must remove the hard guardrails on what EMS can do. We need to think about our roles as healthcare in the US is not in the greatest shape. How can we reform ourselves to be what our communities need. Consider pregnancy in any woman of childbearing age. Have guidelines for caring for these patients. Hard to transport these patients out of rural areas as it may take a crucial coverage ambulance out of its 911 role locally. Establishing maternal levels of care nationally is in progress. Texas does this already. Discussion on how MIH-CP is being funded in several communities.

 

Schaefer/Nayles/Holcomb/Antevy/Bank - Prehospital Transfusion State of the Art – How Far Have We Come? What are the Current Hurdles? What are the Disparities, Unclarities, and the New Verities in the World of EMS Transfusions? Why is Plasma the New Headliner? How’s Our TBI-Plasma Protocol Playing Out? Are There Other Uses for Prehospital Plasma like Burns/Sepsis? 120 ground services ding blood and blood products last year and 254 doing so this year. If you cannot get LTOWB use Plasma. There are too many people dying to wait for the availability of LTOWB. Blood suppliers are concerned about proliferation of need. See the Prehospital Blood Transfusion Coalition for advocacy. Agencies can join this coalition. Still some barriers in some states regarding administration of blood to pediatrics. Blood not just needed for trauma. Can be used for AV fistula issues. Some systems approach need of blood as close to 50% medical related causes. Not for adults only. Case study presented on pediatric blood loss from tonsillectomy. Most systems carry blood on supervisor vehicles rather than the ambulance. TXA and Plasma may be more available to be able to get onto every unit. TXA in TBI has a slight risk of seizures but provides good outcomes. Early TXA treatment is better. Ditch the salt water, plasma is better. Plasma does not increase brain edema. Studies are starting but the data is already compelling. Brain vessels are unique. They are designed to not have leakage. TBI causes leakage. Use of saline increases brain vessel leakage. Multicenter RCT has begun. Plasma may be the next frontier for TBI, Trauma, Sepsis, Burns, Warfarin reversal, and Ace-I induced Angioedema. Child who was in case study above brought on stage. Multiple cases of good outcomes in giving whole blood to pediatrics. Antevy says you need to push back if your system does not allow blood administration to pediatrics. Will discuss the role of Calcium in a later session.

 

Bank/O’Byrne/Vitberg/Roach/lowe/Banerjee/Jenkins/Holcomb/Schaefer/Marino/Calhoun/Goodloe/Miramontes/Kazan/Lawner/Ahndebach/Pease/Valenzuela – What are the Other Considerations and Adjuncts Du Jour: Calcium in the field? When do you use it? Calcium deficiency has been raising its ugly head as we further discuss blood transfusions. Associated with higher mentality. There is a sweet spot when discussing calcium levels. Calcium Chloride is better than Calcium Gluconate in this application. Supports a study on use of Calcium in the absence of lab values. “Just because a number is low does not mean we need to fix the number.” Seems to be a bit of a split on thinking on whether to utilize Calcium in the field without values. One speaker notes that paramedics are dealing with multiple priorities in this scenario without having to worry about getting Calcium onboarded. Walking Blood Bank concept and process discussed. One physician describes his experiences in war zones being introduced to hospital workers giving their own blood for patients. The Walking Blood Bank concept is very localized but akin to establishing a reliable donor pool. In fact, reliable donors are essential to a walking blood bank. A case study presented on a rural mass casualty event where significant blood resources were sent using a regional system. The plan is to use a walking blood bank as the next stage as needs escalate. DC is giving a unit of blood on average every 30.2 hours. Whole blood is dropping the DC trauma index and dropping the number of actual homicides (by improving the rate of trauma saves). DC uses a blood dashboard that shows the location of supervisors with blood and time left on each blood product till expiration. Discussion on IM TXA. Decreases time to TXA administration dramatically if giving it IM. Does shock index correlate to mortality? Not in the case of these treatments. The treatments on the front end (such as blood started during crush syndrome) defy the mortality of the trauma index. Whole blood and TXA is very effective in reducing mortality. Discussion on aerosolized chitosan. It is OTC. The spray comes out cool. Needs to be at least 6” away from wound due to pressure at nozzle. Avoid deployment in confined spaces. Washes out with water. Creates a hemostatic matrix on surface exposed. Revisited the AutoTQ concept. Great strides made in the product. Chicago and Amazon are both deploying the AutoTQ for use. It is an automated, push-button tourniquet that self-tightens. IV fluid shortages have been occurring again. No money in making IV fluids. Low margins and very high regulatory burden in manufacture. There is no back up or redundancy in fluid supply. There is a machine that will now manufacture normal saline on site at the hospital. This device breaks down the choke points of shipping and or remote areas. It will produce LR and D5W as well.

 

Calhoun - What is Cincinnati Considering in terms of Prehospital Blood Infusion? Are we bloody well right? Is blood infusion beneficial with low transport times? What is the cost/Benefit? How well does combat data apply to civilian EMS? How does blood apply to non-traumatic hemorrhage? What are the drivers in the decision making? Plasma is $70 while whole blood is $475. What can be gained by one over the other. Only 13%-14% of donations can become LTOWB for infusion. What are we saying? Do the research. Do YOUR research? Make sure your programs help your patients.

 

Marino – Why are Big Easy Trauma Receiving Red Blood Cells Versus Whole Blood? Blood in the Big Easy. New Orleans has 70 Blood trained paramedics. Giving about 100 units of PRBC a year. Using Calcium and TXA as well. Time matters. They are starting two units of PRBCs in less than five minutes. Why not whole blood? WB is more expensive and had no redistribution route. Packed RBCs could be rotated with supplier. Has impacted homicide rates simply with PRBC treatment keeping more victims alive. Fewer trauma patients required intubation with use of PRBCs. Why do it with short transport times? For every minute blood is delayed, mortality is increased by 11%. It is faster to start blood products in the field than it is for those in the hospital.

 

Katz/Kuhlman – Isn’t it Time to Formally Designate Receiving Centers of Excellence for Out-Of-Hospital-Cardiac-Arrest? We have specialty centers for trauma and stroke and to a certain extent STEMI, but what about for cardiac arrest resuscitation? We could easily get better data and practice this way. Why does it matter? There are greater than 350,000 patients annually with less than a 10% survival rate. High volume of a patient type to a given facility increases expertise and survival. This is not for every hospital, but expertise would improve outcomes. Currently the center of excellence exists as a voluntary certificate of attestation but need to be escalated to an external review for accreditation. Primary status must have a termination of resuscitation protocol. Must participate in CARES. Comprehensive must have 24/7 CVICU coverage. Going to transporting only to a resuscitation center moved one service from a save rate of 8.3% to 16.6%. This needs development of national standards. It should be desirable to everyone to use this concept. Hospitals that see the same thing over and over again get really good at what they do.

 

Cheskes/Miramontes /Jui– DSED/VC and the Warranty – Is DSED/VC ready for prime time? ERC came out recommending VC over DSED. DSED doubles survival rate. DSED is superior to normal defib in all aspects. VC is better than normal in all criteria of measurement except for neuro intact discharge. Neuro intact discharge was only improved by double sequential defibrillation. His system (Toronto) uses AP pad placement for normal defibrillation. Names Stryker as the only one putting up a barrier to proliferation of DSED (common knowledge) due to warranty issues with defibrillator damage. Only simultaneous double defib has shown to damage a defibrillator. Another study coming soon on DSED. San Antonio is doing DSED after 1st shock. Two vectors, two shocks, to time frames. First shock lowers impedance. If DSED fails then ECMO may be the next option. Is Amiodarone being given too late in the arrest? In many cases, Amiodarone is being given at 20-22 minutes after onset of cardiac arrest. There comes a point where you are shocking a heart that cannot convert. There is a critical window for giving antiarrhythmics. Our goal should be Amiodarone withing 8 minutes of ALS arrival. Slight advantage with Amiodarone over Lidocaine. Improvement in survival (including neuro intact) if Amiodarone is give early. The earlier the Amiodarone is given, the better the chance of positive outcomes. Studies from Korea, Australia, and the US. Antevy states that he has removed Epi from the VF protocol in his systems. Two studies show that Amiodarone is ineffective when given via IO.

 

Dunne/Sanko/Bronsky – Evergreen Programs to Establish, Enhance, and Continue to Focus on the Various Elements of Heart Safe Communities: The communicate has to recognize arrests to be able to get to paramedic resuscitation efforts. Designation as a HeartSafe Community is a big deal as it builds a foundation to enhance the patient prior to EMS arrival. Public education, prevention, training and incident recognition is crucial. Administered by the Citizens CPR Foundation. Data collection includes CARES and defib registry. You have to commit to training 15% of your population every year. Used hands only CPR outreach. The city council in Detroit has purchased 50 AEDs for community placement. They improved T-CPR provision. Leverage school police for AED placement. Emergency Action Plans in public buildings must be updated. Heat map arrests to show high likelihood areas. The take home message is that this can be done. Includes survivor support initiatives as well. El Paso has the four-minute community roadmap. What barriers are there to AED usage? Are they in the right places. We know that early CPR and early AED increases survival by almost 50% depending on rhythm. Do a time analysis on when arrests occur. Response time analysis on cardiac arrests only. Analyze age of arrest patients. The majority of arrests worked in the US have EMS arrival after five minutes. AEDs are getting smaller and getting smarter tech. History of arrest can be downloaded from use of a QR code. Trying to assure that CPR and AEDs are within four minutes of potential use.

 

Margolis – Preparing for Chemical Warfare in EMS Response and Training: If you were a bad guy, what chemical agent would you want? Fast and effective, rapid onset and lethal/incapacitating effects. Points out nerve agents and asphyxiants and opioids (where there are also antidotes available). How do we deliver the right care at the right time in a CBRN environment? MARCHE2 – Mask up, Antidotes, Rapid Spot Decon, Countermeasures (antidotes in the hot zone and medical management), Hypothermia mitigation, Extrication. Life threatening hemorrhage can be controlled in the rapid spot decon phase. Discussion on organophosphate. Watch out for bronchospasm, bradyarrythmia and the things that will kill you quickly. How much Atropine do we give? Enough. Keep giving it until you do not need it. 2-PAM Chloride needs to be used as well to separate the toxin from its ability to affect the nervous system. Cyanide poisoning? The cell cannot utilize oxygen. Treated by Cyanokit. Assure that we use airway control, advanced monitoring, and oxygenate these poisonings.

 

Marino – Recent Truck Attacks in NOLA: Showed video of NOLA truck attack. 14 killed and dozens injured. Continuity of command maintained. Police department was providing care. Triage tags were not used. Markers were used on patient faces instead. Worked very well. They realized much after arrival the entire operation was in the hot zone. There were bombs present that they were unaware of at the time. Majority of patients were red or dead. 71 patients total. Only 9 yellow and 8 green. EMS transported 29 patients in 95 minutes. 14 deaths and 57 injuries eventually attributed to the incident. Started thinking about what to do for employees in the incident next.

 

Asaeda/Antevy/Feldman/Goodloe – Receiving Facilities are de-facilitating across North America: Should 911 agencies provide interfacility transports? If so, when? Rising EMS call volumes are happening. Often running out of ambulances to dispatch. Hospital closures. Increasing regionalization of care. When in doubt, hospitals are now calling 911. Most common patients for this are trauma, STEMI and stroke. OB, ortho peds and psych are the next most common. Pennsylvania law says they cannot fail to respond based upon keeping ambulances available for other runs. Are emergency departments shifting EMTALA responsibility to EMS? The Philadelphia legal department now reviewing this issue to see what they will do. LA traditionally did not use 911 for transfer work. In early 2000s they started doing trauma center transfers, then it became STEMIs, then the “patient dying in front of you” exception. 69 hospitals in LA county. They drew the line at strokes and started to say no. Hyperspecializing of hospitals is adding to the transfer problem. Perinatal services are becoming more rare as departments close. LA drew a line. They will only do transfers out of the ED. No CCT (no vents or IV pumps). Be a facilitator and not an enabler. Make what you will do clear. Advocate for proper reimbursement ( speaker adds that hospitals need to pay for these transfers). Montgomery County Maryland uses the term “emergency transfer.” Call volumes are up as well. If call volumes are up, they issue an emergency transfer stand down to assure unit availability. Is it ethical to use 911 resources? 911 patients in the field do not have any other help. Transfers are not the primary mission of EMS. “The transfer patient cohort is in the presence of doctors.” Maryland has taken the stand that emergency transfers should be rare, the hospital should provide adequate personnel, and the agency has to have the availability to do it. This should be done only after all other resources have been attempted. You cannot commandeer an ambulance going available at your facility. Under EMTALA with a laboring patient, stabilizing equals delivery. An occasional ask is also different from a habitual expectation. Some systems may be set up for both missions. Ontario provider requires the hospital to provide personnel in the ambulance for transfers. From a coding perspective, they have found that the IFT patients are most often sicker than the 911 patients.

 


Antevy/Asaeda/Feldman/Kupas/Dominguez/Gindling – Panel Discussion on a Number of Short Term Fixes – that May Also Increase Risk: One NY hospital gave a two-year warning on closing which gave time for planning. Type of hospital closing matters. A smaller NY emergency room and three bed hospital closed by putting a flyer on the door with no warning. Closure increases load on other hospitals and increases EMS wall time, which
increases response time due to less availability. Brevard County Florida had a hospital close that covered a needed area. 46-day warning. At the first meeting venting was allowed, after that only solutions. Legislators are looking at rules to prevent short notice hospital closures. Same things are happening in Ontario as well. What is happening with finances in the hospitals has a dramatic effect on what happens in EMS. Community hospitals survive on a 1 to 2% profit margin. Wall delays at hospitals negatively impact EMS provider budget and ability to fund wages and availability. OKC/Tulsa spent 2.4 million dollars in lost availability due to wall time in one year. You have to speak to hospitals in the currency language. See the Rand Report from EMPI and ACEP. See the ABC-ED Act of 2025 (bipartisan supported bill to address hospital boarding).

 

Asaeda/Mackey/ Lawner/Satty/Swanson/Bronsky - Not Bypassing the Closest Hospitals: NYC is taking to closest appropriate. Not allowing patient choice in destinations. Continuity of care does not equate to medical necessity. The California system is asking four questions instead of the normal three for 911. They are asking police, fire, EMS, or mental health. If the caller says mental health, they are shunted to 988 rather than a response.

 


Day Two

 

Paul Pepe welcomes everyone to the last day of Eagles 2025.

 

Gaither – How Does a Fire-based Special Ops Team Help with Aerospace Recovery Missions? Discusses current space missions to and from the ISS and Space X. Talks about Boeing Starliner. When something like Starliner lands on the ground it becomes your jurisdiction. Starliner uses a 300-mile target for landing. It is just another special operations response. Physical hazards: it has a static charge, has hazardous materials onboard (hydrazine). Decon is with water. Albuterol is used if wheezing. Seizures possible. Same as any other hazmat, use hot zone concept and approach from upwind. Set up decon. Level B gear for decon. Specific space related illnesses like volume depletion and space vertigo. How do you respond to a spacecraft in your backyard? Do what you do every day.

 

Simpson/Kazan – What’s the Experience with an Imbedded Pharmacist in Our EMS System? There was a growing number of questions to the pharmacist regarding EMS pharmacology within this service. A pharmacist can be fully imbedded in the medical direction team. Pharmacists can answer questions like: why do your protocols use this dose of that drug? Can answer drug storage problems like light exposure and temperature. Their pharmacist took EVOC. The pharmacist has been oriented at a level to deeply understand the field and EMS. The pharmacist has also co-authored scientific articles regarding medications in EMS.

 

Katz/Cheskes/Banjeree/Antevy – Progress and Hurdles with Abx for Sepsis: Katz: Mortality rates in hospital is 20-25%. 30-60% of all sepsis patients arrive at the hospital via EMS. Time and antibiotics are the key to survival in sepsis. Discusses sepsis protocol and screening tools for a sepsis alert. They also use shock index as a component of their sepsis screen. The studied use of Ceftriaxone. 183 patients received the antibiotic. Tachypnea was most common presenting system followed by altered mental status. Zero allergic reactions. Mortality in this patient population was 4% when compared to pre-study. Blood cultures were impacted. Contamination of cultures went down 4% as well. Blood cultures drawn at hospital after administration. It takes an hour from patient arriving at ED to get antibiotics started. This is much slower than getting it started in the ambulance. Narrow the scope down to obvious sepsis patients and you won’t be overtreating and get the med to those who need it most. Antevy: His system gave antibiotics to 1308 patients last year. Large study coming out of Toronto soon that will change the EMS focus to insure sepsis treatment: PITSTOP Trial. A study that “should be burned” is the one out of the Netherlands on antibiotics in ambulances. Problem with Netherlands study is that the patient population was not very ill. Target of Toronto study is a 5% reduction in mortality. Antevy is converting to Cefipime from Rocephin. They are including peds except for newborns. Physicians on stage gave their experiences as well which were similar. Hospital resistance and griping was a common factor. Antevy: “They keep telling me that I make too many protocol changes and they want me to stop.” Do what you need to do.

Simpson – Experience with Buprenorphine: Opioid death rate was really high. There is an opportunity to make a difference. Keys to implementation were cost effective (tablets) realistic training at less than an hour, and goes on every truck just like any other paramedic medication. No precipitated withdrawal has been noted. Over 70% patient improvement. Now over 200 administrations and have seen a larger number of patients seek treatment. This was in Hennepin County.

 

Lowe/Satty – Various Perspectives and Various Initiatives for Follow-ups: Ohio: This is a harm reduction program labeled as outreach. The day after to 48 hours is best contact time. Need multiple contacts. Resource intensive but pays off. Live conversations are better than texting. Team is composed of a paramedic and a dressed down police officer in a fire department vehicle. They can also delay court proceedings but not reduce charges. 743 people followed up on. 304 linked to treatment. It took 3 or more attempts to get them to link to treatment 52% of the time. New Jersey: OD response team. Goal is to shorten the time between EMS contact and the patient receiving formal treatment. Mapped their overdoses. Community workers work with the paramedic on the team. The referral to care is integrated into the EPCR. The consent to follow-up is built into the normal consent signature for the run. 428 referred with 53 placed into treatment programs. Just added a nurse practitioner to the team. Includes providing transportation to care. Expanding Buprenorphine to all units.

 

Mechem - From Xylazine to Medetomidine, additives to Fentanyl: Xylazine is known as “tranq” and is added to Fentanyl. Now seeing Medetomidine. Both are veterinary sedatives. 91% require ICU admission, 24% require intubation. Treatment requires opioids and sedatives. Medetomidine is not widely regulated. It is here to stay. Profound respiratory depression and bradycardia. Can be treated but there is not antidote.

 

Weston - What is the Benefit of Public Facing Data and Community Education in the Opioid Crisis? EMS has the richest data set. Naloxone is prevalent. They publish overdose trends. Also showing data of mixed overdoses. They also heat map the overdoses as to where they occur in the community. What is the value of public facing data? Targeting where to provide efforts is a key benefit. Partner with academic entities to leverage their data management people.

 


Lowe - How Can We Leverage Drug Take Back Day for Community Outreach? Can we do Narcan training and other community education such as bike courses, helmet usage and vaccinations? What about food distribution? Used a lot of kids’ activities. It may be easier for you to come to drug take back day if there are other reasons to come. Increased participation in the event. How do you manage the volume of attendees? They did this as a drive through event.

 

Mechem – How Should EMS Manage the Accelerating Number of Persons Requiring Wheelchairs? Surgeons are recommending more amputations due to non-compliance in wound care. Replacing a wheelchair is hard with insurance companies if one is lost. Wheelchairs tend to get stolen if left behind.  If the patient has no wheelchair with them it increases costs for hospitals and delays transport home. Wheelchair transport by EMS is now allowed if it can be secured and not interfere with care or vehicle operation. Wheelchair must be covered as most are soiled. Wheelchair vans are also used for empty wheelchair transportation.

 

Jui – Is Naloxone Infusion Helpful in Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest? This talk documents the obvious, but there is not a lot of data that it improves outcomes.  Existing AHA data was indeterminant. Portland has run an observational study. There was a high peak on overdoses last year. Naloxone has no effect on anything other than opioids. How could this improve OOHCA outcomes? Opioid OD can lead to cardiac arrest. Believed to be an effect on pseudo-PEA. Restores respiratory drive-in opioid OD. Reversal of bradycardia and hypotension. Theoretical belief that Naloxone may improve CNS protection in cardiac arrest. Inhibits Microglia Activation which stops the inflammatory response. Early naloxone was given IM or IN Naloxone prior to IV or IO Naloxone. Included LE administered Naloxone. Looked at data by rhythm as well. Marked increase in ROSC and discharge neuro intact in the PEA population (not Asystole). Supported by the Dillon 2024 article on the same subject. EMS administered Naloxone was associated with clinically significant improvements in ROSC and survival to hospital discharge. Antevy states that he supports Naloxone in all arrests if there is any possibility of opioid OD.

 

Persse – All BLS Ambulances? Can That Really Work in a Major City? This is a presentation out of Houston. What is the goal? To save lives. What does that take? Bleeding control, airway, and defibrillation. We also need good customer service and the ability to handle complex medical calls. Where do paramedics fit? They are not needed for the top three reasons we respond. Sometimes you need the extra skill set but it is not the first need. They are mainly needed for complex medical calls due to higher level of training and critical thinking skills honed by experience. 71% of EMS encounters result in transport. A maximum of 20% transported need ALS skills. 49% of communities are lengthening response time goals. 28% have moved to tiered systems. 23% have transitioned away from dual paramedic response. Transitioning to ALS non-transport decreased paramedic response time by 19.1%. This is significant. Also experienced a 3-minute response to cardiac arrest cases. This caused a 30% increase in patients found in VF. And this reduced the paramedic attrition rate (due to increased job satisfaction). My Note: I have pushed this as a system model for years. Simply better on the paramedic and better patient care. This also stops having to pressure people to go to paramedic school and creates a more desirable career option for the paramedic. Sometimes there is a belief that this is a degradation of care when in fact it provides better care. This took educating local politicians and the community. FDNY Medical Director states that they are primarily a BLS system. FDNY is in the middle of trying to go to this as well but is having issues finding enough EMTs to backfill the ambulances.

 

Simpson – POCUS, Thousands of Patients Later – So What Surprised Us? Practice on your non-critical patients so that you get good at it. You can always upgrade acuity based on findings. You can never downgrade acuity based on findings. They use a fixed charging dock inside the patient compartment for storage. POCUS can be used to guide pericardiocentesis. 100% feedback is given on every ultrasound taken. All paramedics are POCUS trained in their system. P3 level paramedics are trained in more advanced POCUS exams. About 10% of the time the cardiac/lung exams lead to a change in treatment. Over 6000 POCUS exams have been performed. It is an additional way to confirm ET tube placement.

 

Stone – Mastering Some of the Limitations of Ultrasound Application in the Field: If just starting, pick a few goals like looking for blood flow in PEA, for ROSC, and for TOR. Defining futility in PEA is difficult but POCUS can make this easier. Acquisition of skills is fairly easy, and it sticks. Needs to be done by all to keep from offering disparate services 24/7. Can also be used to assess carotid artery flow. Flow has been present in 26% of PEA cases which makes it easier to make a TOR decision and not stop on a patient with actual flow. TOR is indicated for true futility situations.

 

Dunne – Is Transesophageal Echocardiography a Viable Field Tool (for several reasons)? Just starting a pilot program in Detroit. High quality CPR is the key to survival. A study from 2007 regarding where hands placed on the chest in the standard CPR position, 80% were not over the left ventricle. You have to stop compressions to do ultrasound. You do not have to stop CPR to do Transesophageal Echocardiography. The probe that connects to the device is disposable. It connects to any tablet wirelessly. Provides very good images even while rolling in transport. You can see every compression from the angle provided in the imaging. The pilot program will last for the next 12-16 months. More next year.

 

Banerjee – What Does Polk County Use for PEA Cases? Bundling for PEA. Survival to discharge in PEA is less than 5%. Narrow QRS vs. wide QRS, if wide QRS it is more likely medical in origin. They do airway, manage ETCO2, and give Narcan. Then Epi, Bicarb, 1gm calcium, D10W, then a saline bolus. In the US there has been a 1400% increase in opioid associated cardiac arrest. Bundling improves ROSC and survival to discharge. They are seeing 18% survival to discharge.

 

Rice – A Strategy for Identifying Pre-Arrest States and Avoiding CPR: EMS witnessed arrests are almost always proceeded by warning signs. In 2019, 9.4% of their arrests had been seen by EMS in the previous 48 hours. Vital signs in those cases appeared to be predictive. Implemented a crashing patient bundle for patients with SBP less than 70. Used fluids an push dose pressors. Once implemented the number of EMS witnessed arrests dropped significantly. The most common excuse given for not using pressors was “we were only five minutes away from the hospital.” They explained how much time is saved by doing the on scene care. More impactful to treat early. Pull up push dose Epi while starting fluid bolus. Expectation is that push dose pressor is pulled up and ready before entering ambulance.

 

Miller – Can We Use EMS Resuscitation to Enhance Viable Organ Donation: Speaker is from Dallas. Case study presented. 17-year-old hanging. It was a very chaotic scene. Incredible resuscitation attempt. Got ROSC. Post ROSC care and survival to admission. Brain death confirmed. CPC 5. Arrest management was perfect but was not recognized due to it not being a neuro-intact survival case. The family chose to donate six organs which saved several lives. What is the role of EMS? In most of these cases, we must have ROSC to be an organ donation candidate. Dallas Fire-Rescue accounted for 11% of all donors and organs transplanted in that locale. The EMS crew was recognized for their role in providing a viable case for organ donations. Cultivate a relationship with organ procurement and find a way to recognize crews who play a role in assuring a viable patient for donation through excellent management of care.

 

Holley/Goodloe/Bachista – Brief Updates on Neuroprotective CPR: Where are we at with neuroprotective CPR? Very few places are doing heads up CPR. Edmond, Oklahoma experience. Several years ago, they implemented one device. ROSC was not impacted significantly. But 100% of those witnessed arrests who had ROSC after a shockable rhythm, survived to hospital discharge. Data has been consistent for over three to four years. Using an active compression decompression device and ICD as well. Memphis: They are seeing almost all CPC1 survivals, or they do not survive. Gave case study of a 64-year-old prominent cardiologist who collapsed on a golf course who survived with neuroprotective CPR. Neuroprotective CPR has outperformed CARES data for the last five years. The study will be out soon.

 

Antevy – How Well are we Preparing EMS and Emergency Departments for Childhood Cases? “Every battle is won before it is fought.” – Sun Tzu. Put the kids with the adults. Out of 378 code 3 transports there were over 400 incidents or near misses. Mentions the national EMS pediatric assessment. You have to have a person passionate about pediatrics to take on the gap analysis and improve. An agenda of improvement needs to be created to drive the improvement. Showed video of EMS personnel training ED staff in pediatric cardiac arrest drills. Leadership includes driving practice. We must practice to drive performance. You determine when to leave the scene on a pediatric arrest before you arrive on scene. You must stay on scene to drive care that results in survival.

 

Antevy – Should We Now Be Applying CPAP in Kids? There are several conditions where peds can benefit from CPAP. Cincinnati has a pediatric CPAP protocol. Essentially the mask must be correct. Flow Max and Go Pap are two that work well for kids. There are adapters that must be used for it to work. https://bit.ly/m/Peter-Antevy-MD?r=qr

 

Kuhlman – What are the Lessons Learned from the Nuclear Navy: High Reliability Healthcare is a buzzword. 98,000 deaths a year in the US due to medical error turned out to be a way too conservative number. The think tanks looked to airlines and other industries as examples in how to reduce errors. There are errors of omission and errors of commission. The principles of high reliability do not work well at the bedside. When trying to learn from spectacular disasters organizations turn to the nuclear navy. The nuclear navy has a 75-year history without a nuclear accident. The engineering part is the easy part. The hard part is changing the culture. The navy was following a culture of status quo (follow orders, do what you are told, don’t ask questions, never challenge superiors, not forthcoming, situational). The Pillars: Higher level of understanding, Integrity of the individual and the organization, formality of procedure and communication, question when something is not right, and back each other up. Uncommon persistence is needed to achieve this level of change in a culture.

 

Weston – Why is Continuing Medical Education So Essential? Standard education schedule + clear expectations and repercussions for non-completion = Da 1 assigned, Day 30 due, Day 31 overdue reminder, Day 50 notice to provider and chief, Day 60 suspended.

 

Gilmore – Should We Continually Assess Skills, Performance, and Behavior? How many have set through the same old education time and time again? Did we really reinforce or educate anything doing that? The education agenda for the future kicked the competence can down the road. It is being created now at the national level. Multi-faceted agenda steering committee. What is continued competency? There is now a definition. The current system is too complex. There is no consideration of on-the-job performance. No consideration of changes in technology. Not a systems approach. The concept of hours needs to be replaced with credits. If you have already proven competence, how do we recognize that in the secret sauce? Can we get credits for number of skills performed? The patient benefits from us being competent. The medical director and the agency must have skin in the game as well. Of course, you as a caregiver have skin in the game as well. Can this be automated through EPCR vendors? How long should a recertification period be? We don’t know. New providers need a shorter recertification cycle while more experienced could have a longer period. We need to stop kicking this can down the road and fix it.

  

Holley – How Should We Educate Our Educators? We stretch instructors too thin. We need to train them to be better instructors. Instructors need better orientation. Needs to be a dedicated individual who oversees the entire educational curriculum development. The mentoring process needs to be continuous. There needs to also be study skills workshops for students along with tutoring, mentoring, and access to learning resources. Must eliminate deficit thinking. Students need wraparound services (transportation, broken phones, schedule help... we will take care of you). There should be an instructional advisory board.


Cozzi – Anatomically Exploring Enhancements in Knowledge and Performance of Responders: Benefits for the caregiver to use cadaver labs for initial and ongoing training. Demonstrates anatomical proficiency, enhances procedural competence, and integrates anatomy with critical decision making. Provides hands on experience, provides more accurate injury identification, and better patient safety by using cadavers. Directly reduces errors. The brick wall is the cost. $6,500 + shipping to get a fresh frozen cadaver to Chicago. Being used by the Chicago Fire Department.

 

Holley – What is the Value of Non-traditional Satellite Training Centers for EMS Continuing Education? A closed navy training facility was acquired and started reaching out to various types of organizations to see if it could be used for training. Assessed on site housing, wifi, simulation space, classrooms, AV systems, etc... space for drone training, search and rescue site, and more. Needed to be multi-disciplinary. Were the agencies able to contribute instructors, share equipment, provide financing, etc... What did we do? Created what was needed and the appropriate spaces for all needs. The property provided is now neutral ground for many disciplines to use.

 

Jui/Marty – What are Upcoming Infectious Disease Threats EMS Should Know? H5N1 Avian Influenza in the US. Focus on the D1.1 Variant. Seasonal flu is also no joke. Most pandemics are from a form of avian influenza. Then it needs to cross to humans and have human to human transmission. H5N1 is a hybrid virus. 50% mortality rate. 70 reported cases in the US. This is driving up egg costs. The risk to general public is currently low unless working in the bird/egg industry. First detected in the US in 2024. D1.1 has an enhanced binding to human type receptors. H5N1 crosses into cats, cattle, wild birds, poultry, and rats. Primary worry is transmission to humans. We depend on flu shots, and antivirals. Measles is back and it can kill you. Before widespread vaccinations, Measles caused 2.6 million deaths a year. There is a 14 day incubation period. Measles is still in the top 10 killers of children in the world. Measles spreads easily and quickly. This was eliminated in the Americas and now it is back. This is a bad thing. Measles vaccine is $1.14. Three deaths have occurred in the US. Discussion transmission, like viruses and case definitions. Measles rash starts in 2-4 days (speaker knows we are being told 4 days, but it can start in 2 days). It can cause convulsions and neuro deficits. Give fluids and anti-fever medications. There is no antiviral for Measles.

 

Feldman – What Happens When the Chemical Threat is in the Hospital? CBRNE response to hospitals. Discussed case where fumes from phenol formaldehyde exposed patient made to the hospital and required evacuation of the ED and ORs had to be closed as it entered the ventilation system. Another case was covered regarding Malathion (organophosphate) making it into the hospital on a transported patient. Some hospitals plan to call fire and EMS to handle patients inside the hospitals. Poison Control sometimes has a long hold time.

 

Augustine/Dunne/Calhoun – What’s in My Fireground Toolkit? Case studies regarding CN antidote usage. When synthetics burn they create toxic byproducts. CO and CN are issues that cause death in smoke inhalation. No one wants to see soot or burns inside the airway and mouth. CO must be monitored with firefighters on the fire scene. Clothing can off gas after leaving scene. If CO and fire are present CN is likely as well. Look for weak, dizzy, diaphoresis, headache, AMS, dysrhythmia, chest pain, seizures and cardiac arrest are all signs of CN poisoning. Anyone on the fire scene can be exposed. PPE is essential to prevention. Every headache does not need the antidote. The antidote is a limited resource both on scene and at the hospital. Do not rush fire scene injuries, fight that impulse and truly take care of the patient. Pedi dosing is becoming more common. In one case the smoke went up an elevator shaft and caused smoke inhalation on the top floors.

 

Miller – Is Cold Water Immersion Effective and Safe in Severe Heat Illness? Specifically discussing
heat stroke. He states, yes and yes. Heat deaths have doubled in recent decades. This is an issue for all who work in hot environments. Heat + a core temp of over or equal to 104 degrees F, combined with a high index of suspicion = Heat Stroke. There is a 30-minute target for dramatic reduction in core temperature. Cold packs at pulse points do not provide enough cooling. Cold packs do not even get cold enough to provide the level of cooling needed. Use cold water immersion. The sooner the cooling starts the better. It should not wait till arrival at the hospital. Cool first, transport second. Adapt a body bag to hold ice and water for this purpose. You can also use a tarp as a taco. It is now their protocol, and it has been working well. Twenty patients treated so far. Being used in DFW and San Antonio.

 

Lawner - Trauma Arrest – Re-analyze our Management of Traumatic Arrest: NAEMSP and ACS have a TOHCA algorithm. CPR is not as important as the proven life-saving interventions. If you want to do compressions, do so, but do not let it get in the way of what might work. Giving blood and controlling the airway have proven benefits toward outcomes. There is zero benefit that compressing a heart with no blood in it does anything positive, in fact it may hinder residual cardiac perfusion. Things that matter when the conditions are present: Manage the airway, bind the pelvis, decompress the chest, perform pericardiocentesis, and stop exsanguination.

 

Miramontes – Red or Dead? On-scene Trauma Triage: Some thoughts on atypical scene management. Shows START Triage algorithm. Complicated. Shows SALT algorithm. If flash bangs or explosions, SALT is useless as no one can hear you to follow you. If you are shot or stabbed in the box, you do not need a tag, you need an operating room. Stop bleeding, get an airway (simple), and move them to the truck. Movement is the most important component. Get the cluck to the truck. You need engine companies for the sole purpose of helping move patients to trucks. Abandon triage tags. What about lightning strike MCI? Three people down. Always use reverse triage with lightning. The dead are treated first. Again, you need a lot of people to move the patients. The dead are the most salvageable in this case. Case study from Walmart on July 23, 2017. Walmart assisted green and yellow patients with water and support. Declare deaths and shield the dead from other responders to reduce PTSD. June 27, 2022 Quintana Road case study with multiple patients and bodies in back of a semi trailer. Officer did a Red or Dead method as the semi was full of people. Police cars can clog MCI scenes. Have someone move them to create entry and egress corridors. Designed their own triage algorithm. Hide the dead from public and responder view. Size up the scene. Go through command. Do airway and required stuff that works and get the cluck to the truck. Have a plan for fatality management.

 

Calhoun – Why We Need to re-analyze the use of chest seals: Stop buying them. They do not do what we have been told they do. They only trap air inside. The only thing they may do is help reinflate the lung if there is spontaneous breathing. Most of the time this is not needed. These waste funds and time. Never use on a patient receiving PPV.

 

Sandoval/Feldman – Are Current Call-Takers Questions and 911 Deployment Codes Correct? How accurate is medical incident dispatch? Using card 12 (seizures) for the analysis. Looked at frequency of Midazolam utilization by the ambulance. Most calls were delta responses. 34 were actually arrests and some of the arrests were dispatched as Alpha through Charlie calls. Findings: Two questions on the card predicted acuity. Those were history of seizures and history of brain cancer. This can be done for any card/protocol. Response case can be correlated to EPCR and then hospital outcome if needed. In EMD, no perfect precision is possible. “EMD is a massive public health screening exercise.” The impact is significantly positive, but not perfect. EMD catches far more than it misses. Maybe we compare the standard to the protocol to assure the response correlates to the protocol. Doing this will cause some things to move. For example, is a fall still on the floor an alpha response? Look for things that are under prioritized by correlating with the EPCR. Use performance improvement cycles.

 

So those are all of my notes from Eagle’s 2025. I hope that you can utilize this information to stimulate advancement and improvement within your EMS operations. I cannot promote this annual meeting enough. Please consider attending. They keep the prices low so that as many people that can attend get the opportunity.













Wednesday, January 22, 2025

My Notes from the 2025 NAEMSP Annual Meeting - San Diego

So once again I offer my notes from the NAEMSP Annual Meeting. My hope, as always, is
that in reading these, you may find a spark that leads you down a path of improving something in your EMS system. So, it is now 2025, and these notes were created while attending in San Diego. It is probably worth noting that I left six inches of snow on the ground in Indiana to travel to the Pacific and Palm trees which I am sure garnered some guttural hatred from some I left behind.

 

In a world of 10-to-30-minute lectures, it is difficult to capture a lot of the detail that these excellent minds of EMS convey. And of course, being typed as I am listening to each speaker, there could be errors. The usual disclaimer: These are my raw notes; other than a grammar and spell check (of which I am sure that these did not catch everything), they are as presented. I also was unable, due to multiple tracks and some needed networking time, to attend and deliver notes on every lecture. If someone finds an error, please let me know and I will correct. Please feel free to distribute these notes as well.

 

Introductions aside, here are the notes:

 

Day One

 

2025 NAEMSP President’s Address – Cabanas – Welcome to San Diego. Notes the significant fire emergency in the Los Angeles area and our affected colleagues. NAEMSP has been doing great work in advancing the mission of EMS. Goal is to foster EMS leadership and elevate the practice of medicine. NAEMSP advocates for EMS needs within state and federal governments. Consensus statement was published on behavioral emergencies. The NAEMSP 2024 annual report is now available. NAEMSP is now celebrating its 40th anniversary. Tribute to Ronald Stewart, MD and his impact on EMS. He passed away recently. We are driving meaningful change to impact patient care. Working on a comprehensive manual on trauma consensus statements. Looking at legislation on drug shortages, reimbursement, treatment in place, blood, and reimbursement for medical direction. NAEMSP does have a political action committee. This is used to support legislators who support the NAEMSP goals. 1,800 attendees at this conference. Partnership established with American Red Cross on ensuring all populations have the ability to learn CPR. Let’s connect, celebrate the gift of our work, and reaffirm our commitment to excellence in emergency medicine. Showed video message from Ron Stewart on the privilege to practice medicine. We need to be able to look back and say we did our best.

Quote: “To teach is to learn twice.” – Walt Stoy

 

Physician Wellness and Addiction: How a Month in Alcohol Rehab Restored My Joy in My Joy in My Work and Made Me a Better Doctor – Humphries – She was on dispatched on a flight call close to base. Oddly close, curt dispatch info, and was a police officer hit by car and with CPR in progress. They performed their skills and loaded into the helicopter. This was like working family. She was pronounced dead shortly after arrival. They said they were fine, but the dispatcher silently took them out of service. Now what? Went back to work. We deal with hard things. We must allow time to allow things to process. Found herself replaying the event and having an elevated heart rate and breathing every time she thought about it. Finally decided that her reactions could be PTSD. 10% of all newcomer first responders show symptoms meeting PTSD. In the US this is closer to 20%. PTSD decreases quality of life and increases mortality. She cannot remember most of the week following the accident. She took to drinking with a plan to pass out each time. Described the funeral. Internalized the outcome of the call. “Each thank you was a knife in my heart.” She felt she was a failure for not conjuring a miracle. At the fourteen-day point, she sought professional help. She was coming to work hungover. She was never drunk at work. Several months later she called her therapist while drunk and the truth came out. This was during the pandemic which had helped her hide her drinking. Drinking alone is a dangerous option. She couldn’t take the phone call back and this helped save her life. Most data on mental health for physicians and first responders is from the 1980’s. Study’s show a strong relationship between PTSD and behavioral comorbidities with substance abuse. Many do not see a problem with their substance abuse patterns. She thought that everyone else was drinking as badly as she was. Women are at higher risk of alcohol abuse. Suicidal ideation is as high as 30%. We are not that different and not to far off from our patients. 400 American physicians die by suicide each year. This is believed to be a conservative estimate. Firefighters that respond to medical calls are 6 times more likely to die by suicide than those that respond to fires alone. 40% of physicians in a recent survey stated they were afraid to seek behavioral care due to fear of licensure issues. Research shows that first responders absolutely have a higher rate of suicide risk than the general public. We cannot self-care ourselves out of burnout, behavioral issues, and suicide. Consensus recommendations: Screen our patients for behavioral issues. Advocacy must be made to remove licensure concerns with treatment (licensure boards questioning is highly varied). Diagnosis does not equate to impairment. Once a problem was identified. Initially was adamant that her residency program know nothing about this. She started outpatient rehab. A colleague stated concern (which she did not see coming). She was concerned that she might be able to keep and maintain a license as she was at the end of her residency. She was told she needed to report herself to the state monitoring board. She was told she would have to take a 72-hour inpatient program to be able to retain her credentials. She went into the evaluation thinking it was not that bad. She thought it would be 72 hours and done. Her own denial ended up getting her what she needed. At the end of her 72-hour evaluation, it was recommended that she spend a month in rehab. She did not handle this with grace and not ready to learn from the experience. She thought she had to be physically dependent on alcohol to be an alcoholic. It is not how often you drink, but it is what happens when you do. Alcoholism is a disease, and it has features. Alcoholism is a progressive disease. Treatment takes time. The mandated break from practice saved her life. Being the patient made her a better doctor. Keep your patients informed. It is important to give your patient even the smallest pieces of information. Pillows matter. Have a little grace. We meet people on the worst of their days. This occurred between March and June of 2020. She was three weeks late to her residency program. No one used her background against her. On completion of the program, she entered the monitoring phase. Research shows those with professional monitoring have a greater success rate. Knowing it was the best way to protect her license was incentive to succeed. It is OK to not be OK. There is no timeline for getting back in the saddle. Recovering from trauma is hard work, PTSD is re-experiencing trauma, hyperarousal, and may other symptoms. French research shows that there is also a partial PTSD as some have disabling symptoms without meeting minimal criteria. Trauma looks different for everyone. It is highly variable in questionnaire surveys. 57% of public safety PTSD has an initial event in their personal life. On this event, she kept reliving the radio call. She also fixated on points of care where she felt she failed. Used EMDR. EMDR is not voodoo. It is supported in the literature. EMDR disrupts memory and lessens severity of memories. EMDR is better than talk therapy or group sessions. Coworker support is a common factor in resiliency. Lack of supervisor support negatively affects resiliency. The hits keep coming. More research is showing that PTSD is becoming more common. As we see more it interferes with our ability to recover. CPTSD is much more common than just PTSD. 20% of healthcare workers drink to hazardous levels. This rose to 30% after COVID. 18% engage in binge drinking. First responders with PTSD showed alcohol abuse as the most common variable. Someone needs help. They can recover. If concerned, say something. You must report them if it affects patient care. Know signs and symptoms, know your next move, and be an advocate. Assume that someone is watching.

 

Injuries at the US-Mexico Border – Berndtson – Shows picture of those climbing the high border wall. Now we are seeing those from south and central American, northern India, and Kazakhstan coming through the border. The border crossing south of San Diego is the busiest port of entry in the Western Hemisphere.  90,000 legal one-way crossings from each side daily. Worldwide displacement numbers go every year. This includes every continent. The US is the biggest destination for immigration. Gave history of the border wall from 1990 till now. Height increased in 1994 and again in 2006 (which also increased the length). In 2016, the fence types began being layered. In 2017 more length and height was added. Annual apprehensions are at the highest numbers ever. Seeing more and more trauma from the 30-foot fall from the top of the border fence. Many expulsions in 2020 due to Title 42 activation under COVID. Who are those trying to get in? People from Mexico (30%), Cuba, Columbia, Peru, Ukraine, and China. There are also those running from Russian conscription to fight against Ukraine. Languages: Spanish, Somali, English, and Punjabi are common. Russian is common as well (and hard to find interpreters). 78% of patients were men, but women crossing the border is increasing. Many fly into Tijuana from all over the world to enter the US there. Many come on foot through the Darian gap. Many have other medical conditions related to their travel before they incur trauma. There is a lot of misinformation amongst the migrants on how to legally get into the US. You must have the CBP One app on a smartphone to apply for entry. There are only 1,450 appointments on CBP One daily. Many do not know of the legal options for entry. Many do not know you can ask for asylum. There is a steady business of those transporting people to proximity of the wall “coyote.” US is putting up billboards in Mexico for people not to trust the Coyotes. Why do they come? War, fleeing crime, better life, fear of ability to live where they are, and family in the US. Even people with injuries state that they would try it again (48.6%). Injuries seen are mostly orthopedic. Ankle, tib fib, heel and spine are common. Calcaneus fractures are very debilitating. 86% of patients are non-ambulatory on discharge. Many times, they are permanently disabled from a fall from an attempt to climb the wall. There is no follow-up as they are just passing through San Diego. Six spinal injuries a month. There is also an increase of head injuries with TBI. Most are sub-dural hemorrhages. 245 minutes from injury to ER admission is the average as they are coming from very rural areas. Many of them need surgeries for the TBI and do not get follow-up. There is also obstetrical trauma. Many have premature births following being seen following an injury. There are also thoracic injuries. There are also drownings from those trying to come around the wall in the Pacific. There is environmental exposure and injuries as it is the desert. Impact in keeping operating rooms full and busy. Drastic increase in unpaid healthcare. 20% of trauma service patients are from border interactions. Now doing scheduled surgeries on weekends. Hospital stay is longer as they have no were to go when released. Only 15% stay in the San Diego area. Some go on to Canada. Wat too many to go to Border Patrol Custody. Transportation out of the hospital is a problem. Many do not have IDs and are trying a claim for asylum. Hospital does get MediCal rates for migrant care. 100 admissions in 2019. 2024 totals were above 900. The entry rules are changing quickly. No one knows what will happen with the new administration. It also depends on what is happening in Mexico (as they guard the border as well. There is a research group on this issue.

 

NASEMSO Update – Kamin – National leadership organization attempting to connect silos between states. They have a new website. There is a medical director council that currently has 39 state EMS medical directors. NASEMSO provides a forum for communication, interaction, and networking between peers, other national organizations, clinical efforts and federal agencies. Nationwide promotion of evidence-based medicine efforts. Looking forward to V4 of the National Clinical guidelines.

 

NREMT Update – (did not catch the name of the speaker) – They have updated their purpose, vision and mission. The NREMT is there to support partnerships to improve EMS and protect the public. Much of this is done through assessment. This is done through educators, certification, sates and medical directors. Slide shown of certification current totals. New exam implemented in July 2024 with a heavy emphasis on clinical judgement. There has been a slight increase in pass rates for paramedic and a significant increase in pass rates for AEMT. They have overhauled technology, examinations and a renewed focus on continued competency. There are significant opportunities to improve ongoing competency. There is an agenda for continued competency that will be published later this year.

 

ABEM Update – Isakov – ABEM EMS Core Content survey coming regarding what needs to be in the board specialty examination. There are now 1,243 now board certified in EMS. There is now a recertification process that can be used instead of the Q10 high stakes exam.

 


NEMSAC National EMS Advisory Council Update – Wijetunge – NEMSAC created in 2007, written into law in 2012. 25-member council of national representative with EMS expertise. Charter renewed every two years. Current charter is good through April 27, 2025. The charter is the directive on how NEMSAC completes its public work. NEMSAC advises the federal government and provides a forum to deliberate issues of national significance. Provides a conduit for public input to the federal government. See www.EMS.gov for advisories. There are subcommittees on things from adaptability and innovation, Equitable patient care, to sustainability and efficiency. There is a NEMSAC public comment portal.

 

Menegazzi Poster Sessions Oral Abstracts – 1) Alternative defib strategies: Vector change is just as effective as double sequential defib. 2) Vasopressor or Advanced Airway First in OOHCA: PART Trial. Multicenter trial. Looked at time frames from first vasopressor and also whether or not there was an advanced airway placed. Vasopressor first was not associated with better ROSC or outcomes. A study in Japan that did not allow IO use showed better one month survival with vasopressor first. Does vasopressor – airway sequence matter? We will need a controlled trial find out. 3) View Adequacy and Compression Delays During CPR: Carotid vs. Cardiac Ultrasound in OOHCA Arrest: Manual pulse checks are terrible in all care environments. POCUS may improve pulse check accuracy. Cardiac POCUS has been associated with increased CPR pauses. Use of POCUS for carotid artery observation may be an alternative. Study used alternating observations using both methods. 94 patients yielded 196 POCUS videos. Carotid view had less lengthy pauses and more adequate view for blood flow. Further prospective work is warranted. Outcomes were not measured, This study was a view and timeframe study only. 4) Differences in ALS vs. BLS Outcomes in the treatment of OOHCA in Detroit: Retrospective study. Looked at ALS anytime in shockable and non-shockable and BLS only in shockable and non-shockable rhythms. Looked at favorable outcomes as CPC1 or CPC2. Shockable rhythms have better outcomes than non-shockable rhythms. ALS doubled the ROSC rates in both. ALS provided better outcomes than BLS. Using this data to justify improving number of paramedics. 5) EMS Training Priorities for OB Emergencies: A Qualitative Analysis: OB emergencies are rare but high acuity events. Maternal death rate is high. Little known on education gaps or priorities in EMS. 17% delivery complications in EMS. What are the training priorities? 17 experts form EM, EMS and OB utilized. Reviewed national EMS criteria by the education standards. Eclampsia was common in discussions. Word cloud creation for expert consensus as opposed to curricula did not match. Top items were hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, postpartum hemorrhage, and deliveries.

 

Microaggressions – Gorgens: Stop Talk and Roll. Must flesh this out.

 

Peri-Intubation Resuscitation – Canning – Raising awareness and red flags associated with adverse reactions when it comes to endotracheal intubation. Maximize oxygenation by using a NRB at 15 lpm for 3 minutes for breathing patients. 15 lpm O2 via NC for apneic pre-intubation oxygenation. Manage BP. Increase BP with fluid bolus, norepinephrine or epinephrine if hypotensive (blood for trauma) before intubation. Use the proper medication. Pick your induction agent, consider reduced dose sedative, and use a paralytic. After intubating manage pain, maintain BP support, and continue oxygenation/ventilation. Deep sedation is prudent. Manage BP with the appropriate agent for the cause of low blood pressure (fluid, pressors, or blood).  Secure the victory post-intubation.

 

Turning Crisis into Opportunity – Cantwell-Frank – Big increases in Opioid Use Disorder (OUD). A percent that survives an opioid OD, they have a 5% higher chance of dying in the next year. Many within a few days. Non-transport of opioid OD survivors has risen to 44% recently. Buprenorphine is an option. One dose can protect for 36-48 hours. Patients who received Buprenorphine in the field had a 12% higher engagement with treatment at 30 days. little precipitated withdrawal noted. Safe enough to be given without online medical control. Protocol shared. Administration is based upon withdrawal symptoms. Discuss what the medicine provides with the patient. Administration does not have to delay scene time. Should even be given in refusal situations as it will give extended protection. Safe, easy and effective.

 

Protocol of the Wild: Developing EMS Protocols for Backcountry Care – Dreyfus – Speaker has developed protocols for the remote areas surrounding Salt Lake City. Overlap of urban and wilderness settings. Looked for those with frame of reference to the subject on what they had done. Medical considerations, operational challenges, do more or do less? You will not have a cardiac monitor with your first people to contact a patient with chest pain in the wilderness. WFA or WAFA, WFR, and WEMT. Wilderness Medicine Educational Collaborative is the group concentrating on educational standards. Distance and time are both factors affecting decisions. Most NPS SAR teams have at least 99% or their members at some level of medical training.

 

But First Airway: Prioritizing Key Interventions During Prehospital Neonatal Emergencies – Redmond – Speaker states that CPR is rare in the neonatal care world. This is because it all revolves on care with the airway and ventilation prior to arrest. Focus on the airway during the first minute of contact and then to continue to obsess on the airway. You are doing a good job with the airway when the heart rate improves. Even when the heart rate is zero, lean efforts into the airway. Baby should be made to be dry and warm. Put a hat on baby. Put baby on a warm surface. Clear the airway if needed. Use plastic bag up to neck to keep baby warm. Tube must be held secure as only a couple of millimeters movement will cause extubation.

 

The Link Between Polypharmacy and Falls: Prehospital Care Considerations – Wen-Han Su – If on more than five medications at a time falls are 1.5 to 2 X more common. Case study of lightheadedness and fall. Systolic BP is 94/60. Patient is on a new medicine that causes lightheadedness. Transport or treat and release? The NAEMT has the Gems Diamond that can be used for geriatric assessment. Note what patient medications actually do. Talk to those on scene about the patient. Use vial of life programs. DMIST reports for patient handoff. Communicate high risk medications to the hospital at handoff. Medication lists are not always a match to what is currently being taken.

 

Prehospital Breaking Bad News – Tillett – Many EMS personnel have no training in giving families bad news. If leaving a deceased subject on scene, you may be the only clinician to speak with the family. Developed a curriculum for breaking bad news. How do you prepare the family for a bad outcome? How do you address angry family members? Take cases and have crews work through the scenarios on each. When surveyed, one department had 41% who had no training on this subject. People reported satisfaction and use after being trained in breaking bad news. Course is available for free.

 

Prehospital Neonatal Resuscitation – Diggs – Use of a gestational age determination tool. If fingers/toes fused they are under 22 weeks. Translucent skin, less than 24 weeks. Eyes fused, less than 26 weeks. If family says greater than or equal to 22 weeks. Resuscitate. If gestational date is unknow and fingers/toes fused, do not resuscitate. If they are not fused resuscitate. How common are out of prehospital births? 62,228 in 2017 (1% of total births in the US). Paramedics have about 15 hours of neonatal/pediatric resuscitation and continuing education varies by agency. Performance: Only 2% warmed infants. Small percentages for drying infant as well. Study on prehospital births being conducted in Texas. Providers were also surveyed about prehospital deliveries and associated emergencies. 33% felt confident. Future goals are to validate the gestational age tool, and secure funding.

 

Spinal Motion Restriction in Children – Adelgais – Looked at outcomes of spinal immobilization in children. 7,500 patients in cohort. Some different in racial demographics for SMR applications. Patient criticality also resulted in decreased SMR. Use of radiologic studies were higher if there was a c-collar or LSB used. No deaths in cohort. C-collar and/or long spine were associated with higher admissions and surgeries. More study is needed.

 

Language Barriers to Telecommunicator CPR: A Process Analysis - ? – Performed this study in San Francisco which is a multi-language community. Used their CARES data as part of study. MPDS Version 13.3. Language is crucial even in the first steps of recognize a cardiac arrest as well as for the caller to be able to understand TCPR instructions. English speaking callers were more highly likely to already be doing CPR at time of call. English speaking callers much more likely to take action based on instructions. However, there was not really a time difference in starting CPR with or without language barriers. Would benefit from more multi-lingual call takers. Need focus on multi-cultural CPR classes. A rapid dispatch protocol when information cannot be confirmed is beneficial. There were actually very few non-English speaking calls noted.

 

 

Missed Hypoxia in Prehospital Care of Major Traumatic Brain Injury: Discrepancies Between Continuous Monitor Data and Clinical Documentation – Spaite – Three H-Bombs of TBI: Hypoxemia, Hypotension, and Hyperventilation. The EPIC data showed even greater harm from Hypoxia that thought. If you have one incidence of a SPO@ below 90% your odds are seven times higher for death. How accurate is what is documented compared to continuous monitoring of SPO2? If you met TBI criteria you were in the study. 36.7% detected hypoxia from the monitor, where only 6.7% were detected looking at the documentation. Three runs had SPO2 on the monitor but not in the PCR. All were agencies that have good QI functions. It is impossible to state the importance of prehospital oxygenation in TBI. Are we missing 80% of hypoxic cases? This means literature may understate how detrimental hypoxia is to TBI outcome. This means the true adjusted odds of death from hypoxia is 6. Is hypoxia simply being missed? Are we ever distracted (rhetorical)? Need alerts for hypoxia from the monitor. We need real time feedback.

 

Prehospital Performance of the PCARN Cervical Spine Injury Prediction Rule in Injured Children – Browne – We know that EMS can accurately screen for CSI in adults. Use in children has not been proven. Children in study were less than age 18. Secondary analysis was limited to those transported by EMS. 7,721 patients in study. Sensitivity 88.5%, Specificity was 63.1%. If PECARN rule is used, it will decrease SMR with c-collar in children slightly and with LSB significantly.

 

Left Behind? Unhoused Patients and EMS Transportation – Mullen – 181, 399 unhoused Californians (28% of the national homeless population). There are significant disparities in care and mortality of medical conditions between the housed and the unhoused. 464, 059 runs of housed and unhoused ambulance runs used in study. Housed patients were transported less regardless of race or season. Data was from ImageTrend database. Policy in some areas may require transportation of unhoused patients. Conclusion is that there are disparities in healthcare.

 

 

Examining the Reliability and Validity of the ALS Certification Examinations with the Inclusion of Clinical Judgement: An Update on the ALS Examination Redesign – Stevenor – Clinical judgement is essential for prehospital care. ALS exam has been redesigned to evaluate clinical judgement. 20,136 tests evaluated. Both the paramedic and AEMT exams displayed nearly the same level of reliability. The assessment of clinical judgement is now more robust without making the exam harder. This reflects entry-level ALS knowledge.

 

Effectiveness of Sodium Bicarbonate Administration in OOHCA’s: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis – Zaffari – Sodium Bicarb currently not recommended by AHA in OOHCA, based on an animal study. Acidosis is a reversible cause of cardiac arrest. Removal of Sodium Bicarb has been controversial. Literature review. Studies covered over 126,000 patients. 9 observational studies and 2 RCTs. No higher ROSC with SB. Survival to Hospital discharge no significant change with SB. Same with hospital admission. Good neuro outcome also had no significant outcome difference. A randomized, controlled trial is needed.

 

Day Two

 

Data-Driven and Patient Centered: How the NAEMSP Quality and Safety Course is Quietly Transforming the EMS Industry – Redlener, Bourn, Dorsett, Little – The typical approach to QI is finding the bad apple and fixing the person. It is a negative approach based in fear. There

needs to be shared goal of improving patient care. Cites a document on evidence-based performance measures. Cites a national assessment of quality programs. 70% had dedicated QI personnel. 62% followed clinical metrics. 38% had greater than 5 hours a month of medical director time. Cites Defining Quality in EMS NAEMSP Position Statement. Cites the Big Vision: EMS Agenda 2050. How do we build the workforce to carry out a people centered, evidence based, quality effort in EMS. It is easier to conceptualize than to bring to being. We have to have the ability to make change. We must be able to do what we need to do to make our organizations better. You need subject matter expertise and improvement science as well. We must start with seeds of ideas. Change skills are needed. Discusses the growth of the quality and safety course. We need to empower patients to improve patient care in their communities. The course grew between 2016 and now to train people in accurately use improvement science. They used “Simple QI” platform to train skills in QI. Medical directors need to understand improvement science as well. None of this is possible without people. “We stand on the shoulders of giants.” Once trained they become pollinators of improvement. NEMSQA 2024 measures report is available on the NEMSQA website. Discussed the use of PDSA cycles. Discussed use of small and large tests of change.

 

The Changing Legal Landscape for EMS and EMS Medical Direction – Levy, Jaeger – Contracts and contract language are a topic of discussion. Discussed medical director contracts needing cybersecurity clauses, workers compensation and vehicle insurance. Some insurance coverage simply is not available. Indemnification clauses (should not be unilateral). You can push back before signing. The medical director should not hold the agency/entity harmless. If anything, it should be the other way around. Workers comp insurance should not be a part of a medical director contract. General liability and auto liability coverage are sometimes being asked for. Online medical control needs. There is an increase of civil and criminal liability cases in EMS. The risk is going up. Video evidence is becoming more available form vest cams and smartphones. “Video refusals” are a good supportive tool. Refusal video can be embedded in the EPCR. They continue to see increases in medication error cases. Discussed the “Swiss cheese” alignment approach to errors. Crosscheck is still a good thing for medication administrations. Crosscheck can actually be with the patient. Showed video from the Elijah McLean case on testimony. Video did not match testimony. We need to think about informative EMS (verbalize everything you are doing on scene). People take video and photos frequently today. This is the world we live in now. Insurance concerns about lack of due process. Contracts: you need to negotiate and not just do boilerplate. Refusals are currently becoming more of an issue. There is impact of video recording on legal issues.

 

Where EMS and EM Intersect: Clarksville, Tennessee EF-3 Tornado – Huff – Air Evac Medical Director. Lessons learned from an EF-3 tornado response. Community hospitals are not prepared for disasters. One main ED and one free-standing ED. Every bed was used, and oxygen tanks were running out. She felt something was wrong with the weather when getting off shift. She had taken disaster training during residency. December 9, 2023, was the date of the tornado. There were 8 different tornados in the area. The tornado was on the ground for about an hour and 50 miles. Around 1,000 houses damaged. There was limited access to the damaged area. Hospitalists helped move patients that were already in the ER upstairs to clear ER for incoming patients. Disaster overflow is on the other side of the hospital, 2 blocks away. Made the waiting room the green tag area. Hospitalists took care of the non-trauma patients, and the ER docs took care of the trauma patients. Orders were written on glass doors of bays. Radios for all team leaders. Reminded everyone to eat, drink, and rest between waves. She was told by CEO to be sure and step back from patient care and lead the team as soon as possible. Some of the sickest patients ended up arriving by private vehicles. Put a surgeon on the task of ding FAST exams. EMS communication was difficult. PSAP was overwhelmed. There was a tech issue that caused all of the ambulances in town not to be able to communicate with the hospitals. The hospital was also the official storm shelter for the homes next door. This caused families to bring pets and there were lots of dogs. No EMS units were available to transport patients outside of the community to trauma centers. Got in touch with unified command through GMR contacts and got units on the way to move patients. You also need to account for teams and their families. Assign someone not involved in patient care to start tracking accountability of team members and their families. Focus on the end from the beginning. What are your triggers for winding down? Team support and appreciation must be shown. Showed a challenge coin for those who worked the event. Provide emotional support. 58 patients from the event with 9 critical. Spin up to wind down was 4 hours. Show up and figure it out.

 

Why Advocacy Affects You! – Tan – Advocacy is the long game. 90% of it is showing up. There is a government relations academy. If you go to the GRA, they try to pair you with your legislators.  We have to get legislators to see what really happens beneath the iceberg. Nothing worth having was ever achieved without effort – Theodore Roosevelt. Currently working on the DEA delays with controlled substances regulations. Supporting initiatives within NEMSAC. Persistence in the long game will help reaffirm our mission and values. NAEMSP has a PAC.

 

Indiana Physicians Gardner and Yazel
Essentially Essential: Pearls and Pitfalls of Navigating Essential Services Legislation – Yazel, Gardner – Why is this important? EMS in Indiana recently became its own department under state government. If you say you need money to provide EMS from local government, you will
probably get pushback. Once it is legislated, funding becomes more of an obligation and an easier discussion. There is more public understanding of EMS than before. Alternative destinations are becoming more common. It is a good time to have the conversations. Critical shortages of personnel exist with almost no surge capacity. What does a well-funded system look like. You want speed, quality and low cost. Eliminate unfunded state mandates from the start. Accountability must be defined. Who is responsible for assuring EMS is provided. Only 14 states and DC have EMS as an essential service. What is the funding stream? Indiana has no teeth to its essential service status with no funding attached. Weakly worded. No accountability is designated. It becomes a hot potato. Who is responsible (state? Local?)? What is “service provision?” 4.5 million Americans live in ambulance deserts (more than 25 minutes from an ambulance). Volunteer fire departments are having shortage of personnel issues as well. We tend to use the same legislators for goals. It is very important to get new voices to add to supporting the issues. Indiana formed an Indiana EMS 2025 group to develop a game plan for the next few years. Legislated a survey of each county on EMS on coverage and subsidies. County commissioners were responsible for responding to the survey. The next step is to pressure counties to submit a formal plan for EMS that will make it their responsibility. Wording legislation is very important. There is a big difference between “may” and “shall.” Work with legislators on wording. What you get in the legislation is more important than the word “essential.” Coupled with essential service legislation is the discussion timing for funding streams. There is room for a federal component in this as well.

 

Charting the Uncharted: A Visual Odyssey through EMS Data – Stemerman – How do you translate data into something meaningful? Mix data analysis, creativity and patience. Bear boxes are a good example. They have to be built to keep out the smartest bear but allow the stupidest human to use them. Turn clinical and operational data into an integrated view. Humans think in a very time-based fashion. Some graphs and displays are crimes against data. What are we answering? Used a graph of unit availability over time. Looked at a heat map of coverage gaps. Where you want to be is in the projection realm, like “Predicted EMS Growth and Ambulance Needs (2020-2030).” When you visualize a large number of abdominal pain calls with an ED primary diagnosis of STEMI, it tells you where to concentrate your QI efforts. Distribution of refusal calls by shift can be telling as well when visualized showing the disparity. Showed use of run charts with UCL and LCL limits imposed showing progression of a QI project. “Response Times don’t matter, stop looking at it. I will die on that hill by the way.” Target what matters like bystander CPR. Always include zero as you baseline in visual graphs. Use differing colors to assure everyone can interpret. Sentiment analysis can be used to look for data in text. She gave a good plug for the use of QI Macros inside Excel.

 

It's High Time for High Performance Mechanical CPR – Levy – Disclaimer that he is not trying to sell mechanical CPR. There are a variety of devices available. This lecture involves the Lucas device only. They are here. Mechanical CPR has landed, and the genie is not going back in the bottle. They need to be used to the best ability. Need a rate of 100-120, 2.1” depth and full release. Toasters toast toast, however that is not all there is to it. Does it do what we want it to do? The data is not that great. There are a lot of trial literature. There appears to be no improvement in outcome with MCPR. It is not inferior but not superior either. The data is a wash. Is the glass half full or half empty. When you get it into systems that use it frequently, you find a bit of superiority in outcomes with MCPR. Machines are as good as humans at CPR, but they should be better. Machines cannot give us shorter no flow time. That is up to the operator. Pauses could be the smoking gun. The longest pauses in MCPR is with device application. What does your data show? Things take time. Time has to be managed. Maybe perfect CPR is not what we want. Are we pushing in the right spot? We could be compressing on the cardiac outflow tract.  Watching ETCO2 and pleth wave need to be used to confirm good placement. Confirm you are in the right place. Use full crew Lucas application to shorten time. Script everyone’s role in the application to reduce the application pause in CPR. Also script two-person application. Continue CPR during defib charging. Video examples given. Apply the device in phases if needed to minimize pauses. Learn – Practice – Improve. Train on this. Review cases and give feedback. It all starts with great BLS CPR. Wait at least two cycles before MCPR. If the machine is not doing the job, go to manual CPR. Put the piston, not the cup, where you would put the heel of your hand. Mark the chest to monitor for piston migration. Use all of the straps to reduce migration.

 

We’re Doing It Wrong: 10 Steps to Ensure that Your Quality Improvement Program Actually Improves Quality – Bourn – Why do we have quality programs? We need to be much more focused than we are. Good structure increases the likelihood of good process. Good process improves the likelihood of good outcomes. There are many factors to defining quality including patient and employee satisfaction. Workflow, care guidelines and communication are top areas to work on for quality. Care providers are not good at self-assessing their own performance accurately. We have to measure their performance and give them feedback. Optimize and De-emphasize chart review. Improvement from chart review only produces 4.3% improvement. Focus on quality activities. The effectiveness can be improved by how we do it. It must be used optimally. Use time limited specific campaigns. Use a specific process. Know why we are reading the charts. Make yes/no criteria for meeting a process. Include contradiction data. Identify the review population. Establish the number of patients in the review in advance. If measuring impact of intervention time before and after time must be equal. Optimize direct observation (ride alongs). Do not observe for individual performance but watch the system features. Specify desired behaviors you are looking for and set the yes/no metric. Have a standard way to observe and record findings. Don’t forget that your people want to do a good job. If you don’t believe that, step away from the QI job. We need to measure system performance and not highlight individual paramedics. Measure and monitor outcomes. What outcomes? Clinical outcomes. Any adverse events? Use actual clinical outcomes when you have access to them. Don’t use hospital outcomes to go back on paramedics. You cannot fatten a cow by weighing it. We must use the science of improvement. Use PDSA cycles.  Have one goal with a clear aim. What do we want to accomplish? How will we know that a change is an improvement? What change can we make that will result in improvement? Assemble and use a team. What elements of our system have created current performance? Measure over time. Start small. Use one crew, one station. Ask “What is the reason for that?” Expand as you go. Focus your QI efforts more than you do now.

 

When Everything Hits the Fan: Behind the Scenes of the Largest EMS Natural Disaster Response in History – Troutman, Gordon – Hurricanes Milton and Helene. There is nothing more calming in difficult moments than knowing there is someone fighting for you. GMR response to this disaster. There were five major hospitals with minimal to no evacuations in progress. Numerous smaller facilities and nursing homes needing evacuation. Initial request was for 50 ALS, 10 BLS and a few paratransit vehicles. Try always not to use in state resources as they are usually needed in normal roles. Changed eventually to total 730 ambulances and included air assets. This response was in motion within 24 hours of first request. Florida hit ended up not being as severe as expected. Then backed up 911 services. As this was going on the storm moved up to impact Tennessee, Georgia, and the Carolinas. Half of the resources were moved north. 6,085 missions completed with over 4,000 ambulance transports. Infrastructure and assets are impacted locally and when these resources arrive, they augment the existing assets and help decrease the elongation of response. Assets from 48 states sent units. 86 support vehicles were used. 151,000 meals were provided to responders. Two therapy dogs deployed. Sent 5 peer support providers. Had 24/7 mental health professional availability.  DMORT was supported and responders for this were selected for this task. Discussed controlled substance access. Challenges in pre-positioning assets and moving them as well. Flight cancellations were a challenge in getting personnel there.

 

Drilling Down Deep: Creating a Provider Scorecard – Peterson – Make things better. That is the role. We create tools, checklists and anacronyms to improve consistency and quality. Dashboards are used to monitor performance. If dashboards are visualized frequently, they can drive behavior. They use First Watch for data cleaning and compiling. They use Power BI for dashboard creation. Built a scorecard for providers using data for each providers runs. It shows success rates, reviewed runs, medication usage and other data. Gives averages for individual comparisons. Not sure if this is driving change yet. It is an ongoing project. Hopes for it to improve individual accountability, reliability, consistency, and provide objective feedback.

 

We Won’t Get Better by Making Things Worse: How Demanding More is Going to Save Paramedicine – Lubbers – You may have heard it is difficult to get people to work on an ambulance. It’s not that we don’t have paramedics, it is just they are not working on ambulances. There is a 30-40% turnover in EMS. 49% leave EMS, not going to another provider. Pay is an issue, but not the only issue. There is also the impact where sometimes people just want to do something else. Work life balance is right up there with pay. Job stress and low job satisfaction have now passed pay on the reason while people are leaving. What a man can be, he must be. 24 hours shifts are an issue. How do we have belonging with others (where does EMS fit?). Self-esteem issues with ERs that criticize care. Safety is an issue. Why would anybody want to do this job? Have you ever thought that what we do, isn’t saving anyone? “And that is why I am getting off the ambulance.” Making it easier will not make it better. It is bad to devalue education ability or use caregivers with inadequate training. It is good to show value and get people to do what they do best. NEMSAC has an advisory recommendation for the Paramedic Practitioner. A clinical ladder is being developed for the paramedic hoping to reduce non-reimbursed care. What would a PP do? The job would be clinical but not focused on transport. A good example would be treating a CHF patient, doing ECG, point of care labs, and checking with physicians. Then giving care and following up four hours later without transporting. The paramedic of today needs more education to be a practitioner. It can be made safe by making it safe through design. This is not the solution, but a solution. More value to patients, payors, and workforce with a more fulfilling experience. It would also make a longer career path. It would also increase autonomy. This would help start the transition to paying for care instead of transport. If it’s not for you, it doesn’t affect you at all. Making it easier to make a paramedic is not an improvement.

 

Recalibrating the Design of Protocols: A Cognitive Systems Engineering Approach – Misasi – Paramedic education is substantial. There is no consistency between medical protocols. Some are policies and some allow for judgement. Displayed 10 different protocols (types) for anaphylaxis. When more than one protocol applies to a situation, there will be conflicts in the protocol set. There is a difference between how work is imagined and how work is done. Nothing has a greater impact on the paramedic and care that the medical protocols. Algorithms can impair development and expertise. You cannot promote clinical judgement and chastise for not following a protocol. It is not clear as to what protocols actually provide. Speaker used decision centered design. Surveyed paramedics on protocol design by evaluating them. Evaluation was between tabular and algorithmic designs. Survey showed paramedics did not use protocols for care guidance, destination guidance, or medication selection. Algorithmic did not fare as well as a tabular design. Paramedics were asked how they used protocols during a call. Interviewed for time flow and tools (job aids) used during a call. They want a menu of options, not restrictions. What is the dose and am I authorized were the biggest usage. Speaker provides “Misasi’s 15” points of what a protocol should provide. Likes two versions, a desk reference version and a quick access version. If you want critical thinking and good judgement, use a good model. Google the Calgary Black Book as a design tool. Let the field of human factors guide you on what field aids to use.

 

Together We Rise: The Power of an EMS Driven Stroke Registry in Shaping Florida’s Stroke Outcomes – Antevy – The Florida Stroke Registry story. Florida Stroke Registry is a groundbreaking initiative. Process began in 2012. They have mandated hospital participation. Using data and leveraging hospital participation has dramatically improve stroke outcomes. Data is powerful when shared and accessible. It has also elevated the standards of care. The transparent sharing of data is important to help systems improve and hold systems accountable for stroke care outcomes and progress. Benchmarking was used. Dr. Antevy feels that this model is very scalable and could be used for national replication to improve stroke care.

 

Day Three

 

Workforce Crisis in EMS: Reconciling Clinician Sources with Opposing Forecasts – Gage – Not only do we have staffing deserts, but we now have long response times in a lot of urban areas. The forecasts on medics from HRSA are high, but not on EMTs. Are these projections correct? We know certified numbers from NREMT. US Census misses a lot of EMS clinicians.


NREMT data misses those who are only state certified. EPCRs miss non-care positions. We have those entering, staying and leaving. Different reasons for staying and leaving. Are changes in EMS causing people to leave? 911 seems to be the area where people stay. 7-10% of EMS people work in clinical settings other than field EMS. But even 911 has seen a 14% decrease due to those going to other areas. Those entering the workforce still has program attrition or they do not get certified. 21% of EMS students do not complete the program. Another 11% fail out. Testing has gone up by 3.5% annually. Number certified has increased by 4.5% annually. What is happening on the leaving side? They leave for different careers, leave a sate, provider jump, or maintain a card and do not work. Every state has a leaving challenge. Entry is keeping the workforce going. We must fix the leaving problem. Urban has the highest attrition. Not working in a 911 service has a high rate of leaving as well. Turnover is probably at 15% annually. Interventions? Job satisfaction, dissatisfaction leads to a huge group leaving. Satisfaction is hugely protective. Clan culture has the least odds of leaving. We need better info. We need to use individual national EMS ID numbers. Manage the leaving issue. One question asked about the effect of volume. Needs to be assessed. Volunteer EMS is being affected as well.

 

Safety in Numbers! Strategically Prioritizing EMS System Response by Call Type and Patient Acuity Analysis – Protecting Those That Protect Patients – Goodloe – Reduction of lights and siren response is possible and safe. Improves safety. Reduces EMS accidents and wake effect accidents. Improves mental health of clinicians. Promotes medical oversight for EMS in making good decisions on response mode. Leverages the science. It brings to the table our true value in EMS which is evidence-based medicine. We reduce lights and siren responses without any outcome deficit. Must have relentless clinical capacity and quality. Must be concerned with the safety of the public. The quality of an EMS system is more than just getting there fast... or is it? Response time for speaker’s system: Priority 1 is 10:59. Priority 2 is 24:59 requirements. 67% of responses are now non red lights and siren. No instances of adverse events since November 1, 2013. Zero instances. Less than 10% lights and siren transports. Gives example of how they make the decision by EMD coding and review. BLS codes identified for BLS only response. ALS activations on these are less than 10%. RLS transport of BLS patients is less than 1%. Using BLS increases capacity of the ALS system. Use of BLS promotes EMTs becoming interested in becoming paramedics.

 

Support for/from the Prehospital Blood Transfusion Initiative Coalition – Krohmer – The coalition started about two years ago with a discussion between four or five individuals. The military is over a century into using blood transfusions in trauma. The first prehospital use of blood products was in a service outside of Houston, TX. The coalition is agnostic to the use of the variety of blood products. Blood products are a precious commodity. Plasma may be the better component for patients with TBI. Packed cells and plasma can be use as opposed to whole blood. Whole blood may be the hardest product to find. Scope of practice, reimbursement and availability of blood products are barriers in some cases. 42 states allow for EMS initiation of blood products. All states allow for transport of existing blood products. There are about 210 agencies doing transfusion programs. There was an attempt to get blood listed as an ALS2 approved charge in 2024. Submit claims for ALS2 for blood products. We need to file claims so we can see who is paying and who is denying claims based upon blood products. Use proper data elements in the EPCR to document blood products, NOT the narrative. Use proper procedure code and assure the blood component is listed in data of the EPCR. There has been significant forward motion on prehospital blood product administration in the last 12 months. The AABB will release EMS standards soon. If you are already doing this, you will easily meet these standards. We need to work on the blood supply (donation).

 

Double Sequential External Defibrillation for Refractory VF: One Year Later – Cheskes – Randomized trial. March 2018 to May 2022. DSED was superior to VC and Standard. There is much interest in this topic. It is rare that a prehospital change affects change in the hospital. This is the case with DSED. AHA/ERC has not made a statement on DSED. AP path covers more of the ventricular tissue. Impedance is also an issue. 30% drop in impedance with AP pad placement. Impedance is even more important with the Stryker LP15. DSED timing is important. DSED is not simultaneous. Keeping people out of VF is important. DSED produces better ROSC. Simultaneous damages defibrillators, NOT sequential. If you use AP placement for the second set of pads and assure sequential shocks, you cannot damage the defibrillators. DSED provides better neuro intact survival. Vector is important, but sometimes more energy is needed as well. Vector change is acceptable for calls where only one defibrillator is available.

 

The Pediatric Prehospital Airway Resuscitation Trial (Pedi-PART) – The Next Chapter in Prehospital Airway Science – Wang - Airway is one of the most important skills in EMS. Should we abandon ET Intubation for supraglottic airways? There is some evidence that there is no difference in outcomes in cardiac arrest in adults between ETI and SGA. But what about kids? Pediatric ETI had some scientific review before adult ETI in EMS. Skeptics scoffed at the early information that ETI may be detrimental in pediatrics. There are challenges in an airway trial in kids as there are a lot more opportunities and needs for airway control in kids broader than just cardiac arrest. There has never been a head-to-head trial between pediatric ETI and pediatric SGA. Pedi-PART is looking at a head-to-head comparison. Goal is to determine the best airway strategies in pediatrics for paramedics. Primarily looking at i-Gel as the SGA component. Multicenter, randomly controlled trial. Stage 1 is BVM versus SGA. The winner will be compared against ETI. They have a budget of 3,000 patients with 1,500 in each stage. If stage 1 shows an earlier winner, stage 2 will start early. The trial uses an odd/even day strategy. Looking at chest compression and ventilation data from the continuous data from the monitor. The trial design started in 2018 and is continuing. No results presented but are coming. Dr. Peter Antevy asked about ventilatory rates being used. The answer was that this would be in adherence to local protocol based on national guidelines.

 

“From Hello to Dispo” Understanding the Association Between Emergency Medical Dispatch Call Determinants, Prehospital Time-Critical Interventions and Patient Outcomes – Levy, Crowe, Meyers – This is about correlation between EMD condition codes and patient outcomes. IAED protocols have been studied but need an in-depth link to outcomes. Retrospective review model. Prior research has been on how to send (ALS vs. BLS, use of RLS), whether to send (how do you hold a call based on medical evidence). What happens at the hospital after the call? What is the outcome? Is it safe to triage/hold the call? Looking to determine the probability of a time critical or urgent situation based on dispatch chief complaint and acuity. Looking at hospital data exchange to see outcomes to see presence or absence of critical or urgent situations. All dispatch centers reviewed were IAED accredited. Eight agencies selected from multiple states. Does the alpha through echo EMD determinants predict what happens on scene or at the hospital ED? 543,883 cases were able to be linked between EMD and hospital outcomes. 12% had time critical ED outcomes. Proportion of time critical increased with determinant level. 30 met safe to hold in queue (8%). 7 Alpha codes showed as unsafe for hold. There were several high acuity codes deemed safe for hold. Note study in PEC on Dispatch Categories and Indicators of OOH Time Critical Interventions and Associated Emergency Department Outcomes. There is room for discussion regarding ALS/BLS vs. Telehealth, nurse advice, and alternative destinations. Not all alphas are the same. One audience member questioned ability of callers to accurately relay to dispatch what is really going on. Peter Antevy is asking if this data can help break the thinking that response times equal quality of EMS. Myers answered that this could give a method of monitoring impact of response time by EMD code. This allows for risk assessment in an evidence-based way.

 

Key Takeaways from the 2025 NAEMSP Prehospital Trauma Compendium – Colwell, Lyng – Large working group with 110 people involved. Four collaborating organizations. Over 14,000 articles screened. 1,440 articles summarized. Comprised of a prologue, a methodology and 16 topic specific papers. The prologue contains hemorrhage control, trauma airway/ventilation management, TBI, analgesia, and trauma related triage. Topics covered: 1) Entrapped, entangled, and crushed patients. 2) IV fluid management in trauma. 3) Traumatic pneumothorax. 4) Antibiotics in trauma. 5) Pregnant patients. 6) Pediatric trauma. 7) Vasopressors for traumatic injuries. 8) Adult TOHCA patients. 9) TXA in trauma injuries. 10) Femur fractures. 11) Blood products in trauma. 12) Pediatric TOHCA. 13) Spine injuries. 14) Pelvis fractures. 15) Geriatric trauma. 16) Medically directed rescue. Several of the topics are joint entity positions. There are quite a few recommendations listed. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10903127.2024.2425821 Links to specific articles at the end of the article in the link. It was strongly noted that knowledge gaps exist.

 

That is all for the 2025 meeting. I hope you found these notes beneficial. Till the next event... be safe and continue to grow.

 

I leave you with some pictures from the trip.


San Diego


A winged croissant thief on the breakfast balcony at NAEMSP



Lobster Sliders at Sea Port Village





The Bar from Top Gun






The Piano played in Top Gun






Leaving San Diego (with Coronado Island below)