Team Pulsara

On September 27th, 2023, the Arkansas Department of Health announced in a press release that the Pulsara platform will be available to all ambulance services, acute care, sub-acute care, long-term acute care, nursing homes, behavioral health hospitals, and other affiliated healthcare facilities in Arkansas through funding by the Arkansas Department of Health, starting October 1st. 

"Arkansas is the first state in the country to make the full functionality of this platform available to all EMS agencies, hospitals, affiliated healthcare facilities, public health, public safety, and emergency management," said Bala Simon, MD, DrPH, Deputy Chief Medical Officer at the Arkansas Department of Health. “This will help our healthcare providers improve communication to improve patient care and outcomes.”

Editor's Note: On July 21st, 2023, EMS1, Fitch & Associates, and the National EMS Management Association released their annual EMS Trend Report, proudly sponsored by Pulsara. Because the articles and advice found within contain such critical subject matter, we've elected to publish each segment one at a time here on our blog. Read, enjoy, share, and take to heart the following information brought to you by the most prestigious thought leaders in EMS. Today's entry is written by Anthony Minge, EdD, senior partner at Fitch & Associates. 

A closer look at the causes and effects of pressure, strain, and anxiety on the EMS workforce

Stress is taking a monumental toll on EMS. This year’s EMS Trend Survey found more than 80% of respondents experience moderate job stress, with 11% categorizing it as extreme. Over 40% of those completing this year’s survey felt that stress is negatively impacting their professional development, 30% feel it is negatively impacting the quality of service they provide, and more than 50% feel it is having debilitating effects on their health.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article originally appeared on FireRescue1.com. Special thanks to our guest author, Courtney Levin, for FireRescue1 BrandFocus Staff.

Colorado Springs Fire Department has significantly improved patient outcomes with Pulsara

When you work in a busy fire department, it seems as if there’s never enough time to learn and implement a new piece of technology. Such was the case for Colorado Springs Fire Department (CSFD), an agency that currently encompasses 23 stations with over 500 firefighters. Serving the second largest city in Colorado, they run about 80,000 calls per year across a large service area of over 195 square miles. 

Despite having a full plate already, CSFD has long recognized the importance of continuously striving to improve patient outcomes. After hearing about Pulsara, a communication tool that works to bridge gaps between providers, they realized their department could benefit from such technology.

“I think the transition of care and communication between prehospital medical care and a hospital-based system is fraught with peril,” said Matthew Angelidis, M.D., co-chief medical director at CSFD. “As you’re trying to give a report and information about a patient and the care that’s been rendered to a health care provider in a hospital, lots of information can be lost in translation. I think we struggled to have effective, high-quality patient care information communicated between firefighters and paramedics and the hospital-based resources the patients were transitioning to.”

Joey Buttenwieser, a lieutenant at CSFD, agrees communication challenges were a huge area of opportunity for their agency. He notes that consistent communication has now become the norm since the department implemented Pulsara.

“This system helps first responders talk to a handful of our medical directors directly through Pulsara instead of calling the hospital and getting whichever emergency room doctor happens to be rotating through that day,” said Buttenwieser.

Editor's Note: On July 21st, 2023, EMS1, Fitch & Associates, and the National EMS Management Association released their annual EMS Trend Report, proudly sponsored by Pulsara. Because the articles and advice found within contain such critical subject matter, we've elected to publish each segment one at a time here on our blog. Read, enjoy, share, and take to heart the following information brought to you by the most prestigious thought leaders in EMS. Today's entry is written by Kerri Hatt, Editor-in-Chief of EMS1.

Adopting programs to improve service delivery and agency culture

Our goal in measuring and analyzing EMS trends is to identify areas for growth: both where it is needed and where it is succeeding at improving operations. When agencies and providers are feeling the brunt of staffing challenges in levels that have nearly half of providers (45%) considering leaving EMS, and 97% of agencies struggling with turnover – it’s time to change the way we deliver EMS.

In year-over-year comparisons, we’ve seen incremental growth in agencies adopting alternate service models and tools, including telemedicine, nurse triage of 911 calls, alternate means of transportation, and alternate destinations. By getting patients to the right definitive care and reducing the volume of patients delivered straight to the ED, patients are better served and turnaround times are decreased, reducing the burden on providers.

While these downstream impacts of adjusting service delivery will improve EMS for providers, we cannot ignore the impact leadership has on their stress. EMS Trend Survey respondents made that impact loud and clear, citing agency leadership and their direct supervisors as the biggest drivers of stress in EMS.

We asked a panel of EMS innovators and experts to share their experiences, successes, and tips for adopting programs to both improve EMS service delivery and agency culture – creating a safe space where wellness is appreciated, and seniormost staff lead the ship – rather than create additional stress. Here’s what they have to say.

Editor's Note: On July 21st, 2023, EMS1, Fitch & Associates, and the National EMS Management Association released their annual EMS Trend Report, proudly sponsored by Pulsara. Because the articles and advice found within contain such critical subject matter, we've elected to publish each segment one at a time here on our blog. Read, enjoy, share, and take to heart the following information brought to you by the most prestigious thought leaders in EMS. Today's entry is written by Jay Fitch, PhD, founding partner at Fitch & Associates. 

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EMS1’s state-of-the-industry survey provides targets for reducing stress, staffing challenges, and leadership shortfalls

For the past 8 years, the EMS Trend Survey has chronicled what our profession feels are key concerns. Several overarching issues that continue to impact EMS include the post-pandemic labor environment, financial factors that appear to be causing EMS to careen toward financial ruin, as well as an increase in violent interactions. These issues certainly provide a context against which we can interpret the survey results.

Labor shortages across all business sectors (including EMS) have continued since the pandemic. Retention has remained the No. 1 critical issue facing EMS for 4 straight years. In EMS, recruitment and retention efforts have been exacerbated by the inability of agencies to provide competitive compensation packages as compared to other healthcare and public safety positions. For the past 2 years, pay and benefits have been consistently identified by nearly 9 out of 10 respondents as an issue impacting retention. Interestingly, career development and advancement were rated as a higher critical factor than in past years, which is also likely impacting retention.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article originally appeared on EMS1.com. Special thanks to our guest author, John Erich, for EMS1 BrandFocus Staff.

Once you’ve determined what your program will do, you face some practical questions

The proverbial table is set, and you’re ready to begin your EMS agency’s community paramedicine program. You’ve evaluated the needs of your patients and community, identified care gaps you can fill, planned how you’ll do it, and lined up appropriate partners to assist.

Now, however, you face a new round of challenges – and these are more practical than theoretical. Who will comprise your team? What tools will they carry? How will they communicate and document care? And, once they’re out in the field and helping people, how will you evaluate their success?

Alexandria Fire Department in Alexandria, Virginia, chose fall prevention for its initial foray into community paramedicine back in 2017. Focusing on falls made a lot of sense for a new program with limited means: Data on local frequent fallers was available and accessible, and the interventions that could help them – good shoes, handrails, securing rugs, controlling pets – were low-cost and straightforward. The program would be a manageable lift to get off the ground.

And, given its targeted scope, easier to keep upright as it found its footing and began moving forward.

“You have to figure out what’s easy,” said Jeff Woolsey, a department captain and registered nurse who took over Alexandria’s program in its early days. “Pick something you know you can succeed at – and falls are something you can succeed at. If you go out there and say, ‘I want to solve mental health! I want to solve drug addiction!’ you’re going to lose. There’s just no way, without 14 people in your program and a 10-bed hospital someplace, that you can manage those things.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article originally appeared on FireRescue1.com. Special thanks to our guest author, Courtney Levin, for FireRescue1 BrandFocus Staff.

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Building muscle memory eases stress during critical emergencies

According to the U.S. Census, 29.15 million people lived in Texas in 2020. Estimates for 2022 show that figure has likely surpassed the 30 million mark as the Lone Star State continues to see a huge influx of new residents. Providing emergency medical care to that many people is an extraordinarily tall task, but one the state has worked to improve upon in recent years.

The tipping point came in 2020 as COVID-19 presented the United States with unprecedented medical challenges. Residents in Texas who needed specialized hospital care due to the virus were often caught in a tangle of delays, as medical teams weren’t always working from the same playbook.

“We heard stories across the state where multiple fixed-wing aircraft showed up at the wrong airport to pick up the wrong patient,” said Joey Branton, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at Pulsara. “They were making a minimum of 30 phone calls per patient transfer.”

While the pandemic put immense pressure on first responders and the health care system, mass casualty incidents like active shooters and natural disasters didn’t stop. It quickly became clear that those in Texas needed a better way to manage patients from start to finish.

A statewide wristband system was put in place to give every patient a unique ID that could be used across organizations. But it was the coupling of that initiative with the Pulsara platform which enabled fire and EMS providers to significantly improve their level of care.

Pulsara helps streamline communication between first responders during single-patient events and mass casualty incidents. As with any skill, confidence in using this tool comes through the muscle memory built up through regular use. “First responders in Texas realized to be truly proficient at using the efficiencies provided by the Pulsara platform, they needed to use it every day,” said Branton.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article originally appeared on EMS1.com. Special thanks to our guest author, John Erich, for EMS1 BrandFocus Staff.

It’s not as hard to get started as you might think – follow these initial steps

Few experienced paramedics need to be persuaded of the value of community paramedicine – they’ve seen the repeat 911 callers, the chronic problems and the social factors that trap people in cycles of poor health. But against so many problems so large, it’s hard to know where to begin. Who should a CP program serve? What should it try to do?

The good news is, the answers to those questions aren’t unknowable, and it’s not as hard as you might think to get a basic program up and running. Here is a guideline for departments willing to take that step toward more comprehensive care for the vulnerable in their communities.

Step #1: Assess your needs

You might have certain interventions in mind from the outset. But whatever your program does should be based on data, not impressions or anecdotes. Focus on what your population needs, not what you want.

“It really is important that you do what’s right for your community,” said veteran EMS writer and educator Hilary Gates, MAEd, NRP, director of educational strategy for Prodigy EMS and a volunteer paramedic with the Alexandria Fire Department in Virginia, whose community paramedic program she helped found in 2017. “If you start by saying, ‘I’d like to help solve the opioid crisis,’ you might find there’s actually more meth in your community than opioids.”

Identifying appropriate areas for intervention best begins with a needs assessment – an evaluation of areas where current conditions fall short of expectations. Veteran providers may already have a sense of such areas in their communities, and agency ePCR data can yield insights into call types and frequencies. Sources like NEMSIS (the National EMS Information System), CARES (the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival) and top EMS software companies can also provide data to get you started.

Gain insight into how go/no-go situations are resolved by incident commanders and how you can level-up your own decision-making skills.

There are countless debates in the fire service that come down to simple go/no-go decision-making: go to the roof or not, search the fire building or not, take action at an active shooter event or not, to name a few. Go or no-go decisions become a very real situation with very real consequences.

Incident commanders, in particular, are routinely faced with making decisions that will ultimately result in either successful outcomes or compromised safety of citizens and firefighters alike. This digital eBook edition helps company and chief officers manage these moments and make smart decisions that balance firefighter safety and service to the community.

Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from a news story that was originally published on kbtx.com. Check out the full story here. 

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - Whenever disaster strikes, first responders are there to deal with the aftermath, which means they need to be prepared for any situation.

Last week, first responders across the region came together to strengthen their response techniques using a special platform called Pulsara.

Pulsara is a healthcare communications and logistics platform that unites teams and technologies during dynamic events.

Billy Rice, Director of EMS at St. Joseph Health Hospital, said large scale events are typically difficult to manage, but their goal is to create an actionable plan should a disaster occur.

Patient tracking during large-scale events is a challenge. Patients may be passed between first responders, ground transport, air transport, and then transferred from one facility to another. For routine calls with individual patients, it’s feasible to track who transported the patient and where they ended up. But in mass-casualty incidents and large-scale hazards, chaotic scenes and large numbers of patients make it difficult to keep track of each patient, their information, and their ultimate destination. 

In order to solve these problems, some states are using a new approach to patient tracking: statewide wristbands with barcodes that can help track patients across organizations by functioning as a universal patient ID. 

PDC, a global manufacturer and leader in healthcare identification, is partnering with Pulsara, the leading telehealth, communication, and patient logistics platform, to offer wristbands for tracking patients within the Pulsara platform. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article originally appeared on EMS1.com. Special thanks to our guest author, Carol Brzozowski, for EMS1 BrandFocus.

What if you could improve patient care—across your city, region, and even state—by streamlining communication and coordination between EMS and hospital teams? Texas hospital and EMS leaders are doing just that, utilizing new workflows built on a scalable telehealth communication and logistics platform. Since reworking their trauma system, they’ve improved efficiency, reduced phone calls to multiple people, streamlined transfers, optimized continuity of care, and created shared awareness and accountability.

In this leadership roundtable with Jennifer Carr, MSN, RN, CPEN, TCRN, Vice President of Trauma Services at CHRISTUS Spohn Health System in Corpus Christi, TX, Randy Endsley, BSN, CFRN, CEN, LP, CMTE, Chief Medical Officer and Flight Nurse with HALO-Flight in Corpus Christi, TX, and Corey Ricketson, Sales VP at Pulsara, discover why they created this new system of care, what day-to-day operations look like, and how they are growing it across their organization and region.

Watch the full webinar and check out part 2 of our blog coverage below! And in case you missed it, catch up on part 1 here.

What if you could improve patient care—across your city, region, and even state—by streamlining communication and coordination between EMS and hospital teams? Texas hospital and EMS leaders are doing just that, utilizing new workflows built on a scalable telehealth communication and logistics platform. Since reworking their trauma system, they’ve improved efficiency, cut down on phone calls to multiple people, streamlined transfers, optimized continuity of care, and created shared awareness and accountability.

In this leadership roundtable with Jennifer Carr, MSN, RN, CPEN, TCRN, Vice President of Trauma Services at CHRISTUS Spohn Health System in Corpus Christi, TX, Randy Endsley, BSN, CFRN, CEN, LP, CMTE, Chief Medical Officer and Flight Nurse with HALO-Flight in Corpus Christi, TX, and Corey Ricketson, Sales VP at Pulsara, discover why they created this new system of care, what day-to-day operations look like, and how they are growing it across their organization and region.

Watch the full webinar and check out part 1 of our blog coverage below!

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article originally appeared on firechief.com. Special thanks to our guest author, John Erich, for FireRescue1 BrandFocus Staff.

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Triage at major events can be slow, and tracking patients can be difficult – Pulsara’s new functionality is aimed at improving both experiences

As it prepared for takeoff, the 737 couldn’t avoid the speeding rental truck that came crashing toward it through the fence beyond the airport tarmac. The resulting collision killed 14 of its passengers and crew, as well as the driver of the truck, and left 56 more injured.

First responders from multiple agencies rushed to the scene that morning last October at Preston Smith International Airport in Lubbock, Texas, to respond to the full-scale mass-casualty exercise. Medical personnel triaged the wounded and gave them special armbands the state now uses for patients experiencing time-sensitive emergencies, including victims of mass-casualty incidents. The bands contained individual barcodes that, with a quick scan, would take any responder at the scene to a dedicated care channel for that patient, where the provider could then enter the patient’s identifying and treatment information.

The testing of that technology – new functionality from Pulsara designed to help responders triage and track patients in major incidents – was one of the goals of the exercise, which simulated the kind of MCI that often overwhelms unprepared systems.

“We were looking for ways to improve patient tracking and incident awareness for all command staff on scene,” said Logistics Chief and Emergency Preparedness Specialist Brent Fox, NREMT-P, of University Medical Center EMS in Lubbock. “Pulsara allowed everyone on scene to have full visibility from any location once they joined the incident.”

That quick, easy shared awareness – with everyone who’s part of the response having access to the same information – is among several important benefits of the new tool responders to the Lubbock exercise got to experience firsthand.

Editor's Note: This post is adapted from a report first published by the Victorian Agency for Health Information, a division of Australia's Department of Health. Check out the original version here. 

A recent report published by a division of Australia's Department of Health, the Victorian Agency for Health Information, confirmed the benefit of using communication and logistics technology for patient care at Latrobe Regional Hospital in Traralgon, Victoria. New data from the Australian Stroke Clinical Registry showed as much as an 80% reduction in time-to-treatment for critical stroke patients.

Latrobe Regional Hospital is a busy regional health service in the eastern Victorian town of Traralgon, with 328 beds and 2,465 staff servicing a catchment of more than 270,000 people. The emergency department alone sees 42,000 people each year.

At the recent National Stroke Quality Improvement Workshop, Latrobe Regional Hospital shared how they used registry data to evaluate newly implemented technology designed to streamline day-to-day operations and facilitate better treatment times. The Australian Stroke Clinical Registry data played a key role in evaluating the use of Pulsara at Latrobe Regional Hospital, responding to staff questions about how the health service would measure the performance and impact of the new technology.

Pulsara's Chief Growth Officer, Kris Kaull, recently had the opportunity to sit down with Rob Lawrence on the EMS One-Stop podcast. In this episode, Rob talks with Kris about history taking and how to improve communication and gather better intel. Kris shares his top 10 hacks to improve your history taking, including thinking like a detective, thinking outside the box, understanding medical medicine, being a good listener, and more.

This podcast originally aired on EMS One-Stop on November 17, 2022. Check out part 1 of our blog coverage here, and then listen to the podcast and check out the full transcript of part 2 below.

Pulsara's Chief Growth Officer, Kris Kaull, recently had the opportunity to sit down with Rob Lawrence on the EMS One-Stop podcast. In this episode, Rob talks with Kris about history taking and how to improve communication and gather better intel. Kris shares his top 10 hacks to improve your history taking, including thinking like a detective, thinking outside the box, understanding medical medicine, being a good listener, and more.

This podcast originally aired on EMS One-Stop on November 17, 2022. Listen to the podcast and check out the full transcript below. 

UK hospital and ambulance organisations can now procure Pulsara via the Crown Commercial Service updated G-Cloud framework.

Bozeman, Montana, USA, January 17, 2023 — Pulsara, the leading mobile telehealth, communication, and logistics platform that unites healthcare teams and technologies across organisations during dynamic events, has been listed as an approved cloud software supplier by Crown Commercial Service on the updated G-Cloud 13 framework. Because Pulsara is now available through this framework—under Lot 2, Cloud Software (SaaS), and the service categories of Healthcare and Information Communications and Technology (ICT)—organisations in the UK are specifically enabled to procure the Pulsara UNITED solution for hospitals and ambulance services. 

“The ability for healthcare organisations to access new and evolving technologies for efficient patient care is of utmost importance,” said Cynthia Bradford Lencioni, Pulsara’s EVP - Global Business & Chief Operating Officer. “We are thrilled to join the updated G-Cloud 13 framework, providing streamlined access to customers in the United Kingdom looking for digital health transformation solutions.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: This podcast originally aired on Becker's Hospital Review on December 8th, 2022. You can find the original post here. 

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When a health system is looking for ways to improve patient care, there are a lot of factors to consider. How will new solutions affect existing workflows, and how will they reduce time-to-treatment for patients? 

In this Becker's Healthcare podcast episode, host Marcus Robertson sits down with Kate Leatherby to discuss what challenges health systems are looking to overcome with Pulsara, how the platform overlays a health system's current workflow, what innovative ways seasoned customers are leveraging the platform to improve patient care, decreasing time to treatment, and more. 

Check out the podcast and read the full transcript of the interview below.