Team Pulsara

BOZEMAN, MONT. -- FEBRUARY 12, 2019 -- Pulsara, the premier real-time team communication platform that connects clinicians across entire regions, is delighted to announce Dale Pearson as its new President.

Dale is a well-respected business leader with a wealth of experience in healthcare SaaS companies. He was the co-founder, CEO, and Chairman of Sansio, which developed and supported a proprietary homecare software solution, HomeSolutions, and an emergency medical services data collection, reporting, and medical billing system, HealthEMS. Starting with a staff of two, Dale organized a fully functional, highly efficient, profitable business with a team that eventually consisted of over 70 employees when acquired by Physio-Control in 2014.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Special thanks to Jeff Jensen for writing today's blog post. You can connect with him on LinkedIn. 

Recently, NAEMSP published a study on the importance of the quality of EMS communication handoff during pediatric resuscitations. As quoted in the study, they state “The Joint Commission has identified ineffective handoff communication as a contributing factor in 80% of serious medical errors. The quality of handoff communication from EMS to ED teams for critically ill pediatric patients needs further exploration.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: Special thanks to Rachael Lovallo for writing today's blog post. You can connect with her on LinkedIn. 

Hello Pulsara readers! I’m Rachael Lovallo, a new voice on the blog. I joined Pulsara about a year ago and spend my days testing the mobile and browser apps so that you (and your patients) don’t experience bugs when new Pulsara versions are released into the real world. Want to see what all goes into that mission? Join me for a typical work day!

EDITOR'S NOTE: Special thanks to Courtney Chumley, FACPE, for writing today's blog post. You can connect with her on LinkedIn. 

Not too long ago in EMS, having computer-aided dispatch was only a daydream. We were lucky to even get a patient type back then. Remember when we were “dispatched” by picking up the phone at the station and being told there was a medical emergency at an address? This would sometimes be followed by a tip like “if you see a brown cow near a white picket fence, you should turn there.” No? Was that just those of us in rural Texas?

Fast forward to 2019, when there are national standards for emergency dispatchers to obtain information from the calling party and relay this information to the responding personnel. Now, not only do first responders get an address with a map, we get often get more details too: “42yr old male, chest pain, skin is cool and clammy, the patient was instructed to take Aspirin by the dispatcher, he is changing color. Patient was outside mowing his grass when the pain started 30 minutes ago.”

Thanks to the exponential growth of new innovation, technology, and research, the field of EMS has found itself alongside virtually every other industry in a period of constant change. Medicine today looks different than it will 10, 5, or even 1 year from now. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Special thanks to Alison Bruns for writing today's blog post. You can connect with her on LinkedIn. 

Regardless of your generation or occupation, the rate of change in the world around us is exploding exponentially. From technology to education to organizational structure and culture … there is no way you can escape change in nearly every aspect of your life.

After reading that 70% of change efforts fail, it is no wonder that individuals and organizations try and try again. Perhaps that is the new American motto: if you don’t succeed, keep on keeping on until you do.

How do you keep up?  Do you have that one person in your life that has to school you weekly on the latest slang, Netflix show and restaurant opening?  Unfortunately, we often don’t have that insider access within the organization we work for. How do you keep tabs and adjust within an organization that is part of the constantly changing world? Can you feel security and consistency in your company culture amongst the craziness of new technologies, processes, and objectives?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

EDITOR'S NOTE: Special thanks to Arron Paduaevans for writing today's blog post. You can connect with him on LinkedIn.

As emergency medical professionals — including paramedics, emergency medical technicians, and firefighters — one of the greatest risks we encounter is damage to our own mental health. As emergency medical technicians and paramedics, we are the first line of emergency responders to accidents, crime scenes, and natural disasters. As such, we encompass a serious and vital role in emergency preparedness.

As first responders, it is our duty to provide emergency services in the immediate aftershock of crises and disasters, both manmade and natural. Time spent in affected areas can be a few moments up to several months, often working long days under demanding and traumatic conditions, observing the human injuries, physical devastation and psychological destruction that can go along with tragedies and catastrophes.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BOZEMAN, MT -- December 4, 2018 -- Pulsara has repeatedly been recognized as a leading innovator in mobile healthcare communications and has recently garnered the distinction of receiving the 2018 EMS World Innovation Award. Identified as a finalist earlier this fall, Pulsara received the winning news this month. With the addition of Consult, Transfer and Video capabilities, the company’s mission to unite caregivers by connecting healthcare teams continues to shine through in their product advancements.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Special thanks to Jeff Jensen for writing today's blog post. You can connect with him on LinkedIn. 

Last February, the American Heart Association committed to saving 50,000 additional lives from in-hospital sudden cardiac arrest by 2025. In July, they announced RQI 2020 that offers a comprehensive end-to-end quality improvement program designed to deliver higher quality of CPR to health care systems.  The market debut will be January of 2019 through its newly formed joint venture with Laerdal, RQI Partners, LLC.

So what is RQI?

Resuscitation Quality Improvement, or RQI, is intended to improve Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) skills, while also making training more convenient for healthcare providers. Students can take the cognitive components of testing online and then test their psychomotor skills with real-time feedback by performing CPR at mobile Simulation Stations (such as SIM-MT, the state-wide simulation project based in Pulsara's home town of Bozeman, MT) equipped with adult and infant manikins.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Special thanks to Justin Baker for writing today's blog post. You can connect with him on LinkedIn. 

A common problem that I have found in healthcare is that many people in this field have a strong tendency to choose the most inexpensive solution, even when it's at the detriment of productivity or outcomes. Even as solutions like Pulsara continue to demonstrate advancements and progress, we also continue to run into road blocks because of this mindset. When having discussions with hospital leadership members, we hear the same responses continuously: “This is a great product and would be very beneficial, but we don’t have the funding for it.” Or: “The current solution that we are using doesn’t cost us a thing. The two main transferring hospitals pay for it, so why would we want to pay for a product?”

These outlying facilities definitely see the benefit in the product, but ultimately not enough to put in the work to find a way to include it in the budget. There is documented proof that eighty percent of serious medical errors involve miscommunication between caregivers during transition of care. So why as an industry do we continue to choose the cheap way out of things when that means using solutions that contribute to this problem rather than addressing it? 

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article originally appeared on EMS1.com. Special thanks to our guest author, Rachel Zoch of EMS1 BrandFocus. 

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As so-called “self-driving” technology advances, there are more and more stories about autonomous vehicles in the media. Some are positive accounts of the possibilities this technology offers for improved safety or efficiency – others are cautionary tales about crashes and other potential dangers. 

But what does autonomous vehicle technology mean for EMS? How will self-driving cars interact with ambulances? Will ambulances themselves become autonomous?

This article answers five key questions to help providers understand what the increasing use of autonomous vehicles means for EMS:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BOZEMAN, MT -- October 31, 2018 -- In keeping with the Pulsara integration program, Pulsara is happy to announce the capability to share a diagnostic quality 12-lead ECG directly from ZOLL X Series monitors. Communicating directly with the monitor reduces time, allowing EMS providers to provide needed hospital communication without added steps.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NASHVILLE, TN -- October 29, 2018 --  Pulsara will be unveiling critical new elements of its technology during the EMS World Expo conference this week in Nashville. Pulsara provides a real-time communication network in hospitals and across entities and regions—driving quality improvement and better patient coordination. The technology solution is being used by regional healthcare systems across the U.S. and Australia.