Pulsara Blog

EMS1.com recently featured Pulsara's Founder and CEO, James in an episode of their Inside EMS podcast, where he discussed regional systems of care and how they impact effective communication. Below is an excerpt of the accompanying article, as well as the podcast episode for your listening pleasure. 

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In this episode, co-hosts Chris Cebollero and Kelly Grayson are joined by Founder and CEO of Pulsara Dr. James Woodson. Dr. Woodson shares his expertise by defining documentation and how it relates to good patient care, as well as the role and responsibility of providers to use effective communication and shares his opinions as to why EMS has trouble connecting with the care team.

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

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There are several clinical studies of elderly populations that suffer from Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia which show that familiar and pleasant music can decrease agitation, reduce depression, increase movement and sociability, as well as improve cognitive ability and decrease problem behaviors BETTER than medicine.  Recently, I was privileged to encounter this phenomenon up close and in person.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a fan of music. I spent many years playing my own music, and I’ve spent thousands of hours at music festivals and live shows, connecting with the energy in each note. As a kid, I remember sitting in the backseat of my mom’s car and singing along to all of her favorite artists she’d play over and over on cassette tapes.

Anytime I hear those songs now, I remember what it felt like to sing them with my mom as we cruised along the roadways of southwestern Pennsylvania. I can vividly recall the carefree feeling, the happiness, the smiles, and most of all how the music would flow through us, deepening our mother-daughter bond with each note.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Thanks to our guest blogger this week, Rommie L. Duckworth, BS, LP. Rom is a dedicated emergency responder and award-winning educator with more than twenty-five years of experience working in career and volunteer fire departments, hospital health care systems, and public and private emergency services. Currently a career fire captain and paramedic EMS coordinator, Rom is an emergency services advocate, and contributor to research, magazines and textbooks on topics of leadership, emergency operations, and educational methodology. Rom is a frequent speaker at conferences and symposia around the world and can be reached via RescueDigest.com.

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

Mental health issues remain a concerning problem that plague first responders. As we continue to look at the issue as a whole, the motto has always been to sweep it under the rug and not let fellow coworkers know that something bothered you. It is time that we get past this "tough" exterior, and start taking care of ourselves.

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

Eighteen years ago, I was a brand new paramedic. My boots were un-scuffed and my uniform shirt was spotless. I was ready to be a hero. But then I made my first breathing problems call and my patient had both a history of CHF and COPD and I couldn’t hear her lung sounds. I picked the protocol I thought best and took her to the hospital. 

On arrival, Dr. Robert Sheppard walked into the room as I was giving report and promptly starts ordering everything from the protocol I didn’t choose. He probably saw the look on my face and my heart sinking, and he said “come here with me.” He took me out of the room into the empty radiology hallway and told me “you missed it.” I told him I couldn’t hear her lung sounds and he responded, “You didn’t have to hear her lungs… you didn’t listen to everything else her body was trying to tell you. You were too focused on one thing. Don’t miss it again.” He smiled and he walked back into the room to take care of the patient. That two minutes he took out of his day to pull me aside and teach me instead of doing it in front of everyone in the room has impacted my life to this day. 

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

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” -Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

It’s probably safe to assume that by the time most Americans complete their high school education they are at least somewhat familiar with the above phrase from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Basically, Juliet tells Romeo that a name is an artificial and meaningless convention. While this can and does hold truth in some realms, I invite you to briefly explore with me a different take on this phrase.

What’s in a name? To be called a public servant is a very honorable and noble thing. Whether you’re a police officer, firefighter, or EMS provider, you are a public servant by both legal and popular definition. But when was the last time you put some thought into this label?

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

The secret to effective communication is knowing how and when to share your message. This is something that, after 20 years of marriage, I am finally starting to grasp the concept of.

Let me explain: When we communicate with others, we can do so in two ways -- in real-time (synchronously), or we can deliver a message that can be consumed by the recipient when it is convenient for them, (asynchronously).

For instance, I have found that when communicating with my wife about an injury to one of my children, a phone call, no matter what time of day or night, is warranted. Information is shared between us that is used to make decisions in the care and treatment of those injuries, and an action plan is set in place quickly. This real-time, synchronous communication lets us be as efficient as possible under time-sensitive conditions. 

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

Picture this: You receive a 911 call for chest pain, and on arrival you are quick to identify that your patient is having a STEMI. You quickly load the patient into the medic unit and then notify the receiving facility you are on the way. You find out later that your patient went to the cath lab and is now in recovery doing well. Job well done….or was it?

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.”

“In today’s interconnected and complex healthcare environment, an EMS leader must understand when and how to collaborate, both within the organization and with outside partners.”

Last month, EMS1.com published “The State of Collaboration in EMS” white paper, to help inform EMS leaders about the importance of and tips for collaboration within their own organizations and with outside entities.

One region featured in the white paper was Colorado Springs, CO. The region was struggling to connect the more than twelve fire and EMS organizations and five hospitals (who are part of two larger hospital systems), particularly when trying to communicate key information for time sensitive emergencies. The feature in the white paper discusses how EMS leaders in the area were able to unite all care teams, regardless of the entities they worked for, around a common goal of improving quality of care for patients in the community by reducing delays due to miscommunication.

I want to discuss a story that at first might seem an unusual and even confusing topic for a Pulsara blog post, and I want to start out with a disclaimer that this post isn't about religion. I'll use the ancient story of the Tower of Babel from the Bible to illustrate my point, but hopefully all readers will be able to glean value from my words regardless of views, beliefs, or religion. 

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.

Last Month, EMS1.com published an eBook titled "Examine Your EMS Agency's Safety Culture to Improve Patient Outcomes."  In it, Pulsara's Founder and CEO, Dr. James Woodson, was featured for one of the articles about how technology is not a magic bullet that can fix an inefficient EMS culture. Instead, technology must be supplemented with good processes, and most importantly, with the right people. Below is the full article featuring Dr. Woodson. The entire eBook can be downloaded here!

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: 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:

According to a recent article published in Forbes, "The move to population health and away from fee-for-service medicine is working to the detriment of U.S. hospitals, a new report from Fitch Ratings indicates.

According to a recent study published in JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions, activating the cath lab for patients with STEMI diagnosis before their arrival at the hospital led to significantly shorter wait times, shorter door-to-device times, and ultimately reduced mortality. 

A review of the study in MedPage Today stated: "Activating the cardiac catheterization laboratory at least 10 minutes before an ST-segment elevation MI (STEMI) patient arrived at the hospital was associated with less reperfusion delay -- and possibly better in-hospital survival, a large registry study showed.

Among patients with a pre-hospital diagnosis of STEMI who were transported by ambulance to a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) center, 41% had the cardiac cath lab activated more than 10 minutes before hospital arrival. Compared to cases with later cath lab activation, these patients were more likely to (P<0.001 for all):

• Be transported directly to the cath lab (23.3% versus 5.3%)
• Spend less time between hospital arrival and cath lab arrival (median 17 versus 28 min)
• Have shorter door-to-device time (40 versus 52 min)
• Achieve first medical contact-to-device times of 90 min or less (76.6% versus 68.6%)

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following content originally appeared on EMS1.com. Special thanks to our guest author, Tim Nowak for EMS1 BrandFocus. Tim is the founder and CEO of Emergency Medical Solutions LLC, an independent EMS training and consulting company that he developed in 2010. He's been involved in EMS and emergency services since 2002 and has worked as an EMT, paramedic and critical care paramedic in a variety of urban, suburban, rural and hospital settings. He’s also been involved as an EMS educator, consultant, item writer, clinical preceptor, board member, reference product developer, firefighter and hazmat technician throughout his career.

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Improve access to care and triage less urgent calls for more efficient use of healthcare resources.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Last month, EMS1, Fitch & Associates, and the National EMS Management Association released their third 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. 

Our EMS expert panel identifies actions EMS leaders can take to improve clinical and operational performance, and to advance the profession.

The third annual EMS Trend Report explores changes in recurring and emerging trends in prehospital medicine.

We asked EMS1 editorial advisors and contributors to review the survey results and offer their reactions and insights into how the responses reflect current healthcare trends – and what EMS leaders can learn from the data.