Update on Subcommittees
Was previously discussed at May meeting, will finalize plan at June EMS Commission
meetings. Would like to overcome challenges like quorum and repetitive meetings for
same people. Commission would like to pilot taking a “summer hiatus” from holding OPS
and MAS like usual and instead have the EMS office work on projects with the necessary
people. Will not be taking anything to County Board or trying to change ordinance yet.
Final decision will be shared following June EMS Commission meeting. Meier
emphasizes that everyone’s input is valuable, but want to find a way to make our
committee structure more efficient. Mancera agrees with Meier’s concerns about having
doctors/hospital liaisons no longer holding a chunk of time every month to meet. Will
evaluate this more going forward.
Protocol Update
Have met with medical directors to discuss medication. Had town hall meetings, only a
couple providers showed up. Not sure if this is because messaging wasn’t there or
because there aren’t too many issues to address. One concern that came up was
consistency for providers who work on several different agencies. A work group is
meeting every other week; Meier asks for more participation from end users of the
protocols in these work groups. An agenda goes out a couple days ahead of time to allow
for review of protocols before the meetings. Meier shares all the methods the information
has been disseminated; Lybeck suggests hanging a notice in the EMS rooms at
hospitals.
Radio Reports
Meier shares that they met with two separate groups – first the hospitals and the charge
nurses that take the reports to ask what they wanted to hear over the radio prior to
patient arrival, then a larger group with EMS liaisons also met to discuss those
recommendations. Meier shares most recent draft of proposed radio report protocol.
Question is whether to change color alert codes to just “alert” rather than "red" "yellow" or
"green". Meier heard feedback from hospitals that hearing someone say “red” alerted
them to something high priority, but would like to see a system that allows more
consistency for coding from field providers. Gussick shares she understands the reason
for having the conversation, since the color alerts don’t follow triage. Goff asks what the
objective of this is. Meier says the point of starting these conversations is to make radio
reports more efficient for hospitals and EMS providers. Emphasis will be on training
providers on decided protocol. Lohmeier suggests report says “alert” twice to catch
attention of ED staff. Lang asks how hospitals are going to approach radio report takers
consistently, especially those who ask follow up questions after a report is given.
Gussick agrees, and wants to know what questions field providers are asked that are
irrelevant to pre-hospital care. Lang asks if as a training tool they can partner with the
Communications Center to get good audio samples of radio reports. Meier confirms that
is part of the plan. McMullen adds his initial questions when this conversation started was
why are providers required to give vital signs when a patient is stable. Gussick says this
is for the sake of triage, and having subjective data in vitals helps. Meier confirms this
was a discussion with the work groups, but they ultimately decided to include vitals.
D. Presentations
E. Reports to Committee
F. Future Meeting Items and Dates
