From preventing on-the-job injuries to keeping insurance premiums down, a healthy workforce is important in EMS. But needless to say, not every paramedic or EMT is a paragon of fitness. In an effort to improve that, the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians (NAEMT) is partnering with the American Council on Exercise (ACE) on the EMS Fitness Project.
The initiative will identify fitness goals for EMS personnel; make suggestions for guidelines on the fitness level that should be required of new hires and current employees; and help EMS personnel understand what it takes to maintain the target fitness level. The goal of the EMS Fitness Project is to reduce the number and severity of injuries and lower the incidence of costly chronic diseases in the EMS workforce.
To launch the project, ACE fitness specialists are observing five EMS or fire/EMS agencies: Upper Pine River Fire Protection District in Bayfield, Colo.; Memphis Division of Fire Services in Tennessee; Charleston County EMS in South Carolina; Austin-Travis County EMS in Texas; and North East Mobile Health Service in Scarborough, Maine.
“This is the first time that a major EMS organization has undertaken the project of ensuring that a template for physical fitness is tailored to the job we do,” said Don Lundy, chair of the NAEMT Health & Safety Committee and NAEMT president-elect, in a news release.
The team is expected to complete their initial observations and analysis by the end of summer. Suggested guidelines will be published by early 2013.
4 Million New Yorkers ‘Pocket Dial’ 911 Annually
Nearly 4 million New Yorkers accidentally “pocket dialed” or “purse dialed” the city’s emergency communications centers in 2010, according to an independent analysis released in May that was conducted by Winbourne Consulting and paid for by the city. That accounts for 38 percent of the nearly 11 million emergency calls made in New York that year. The consulting firm concluded that the calls were accidental if they lasted 19 seconds or less.
The analysis was commissioned by the city after a widely criticized response to a blizzard in December 2010, during which city residents waited hours for an ambulance. Delays in emergency response were blamed for several deaths, and the EMS chief was relieved of his command in the wake of the storm, according to media reports. The report recommended a public awareness campaign to reduce the volume of inadvertent calls.
The 134-page report, “9-1-1 Call Processing Review,” looked at the entire 911 communications system in the city and made multiple recommendations for improvement, including better integration between police and fire dispatch and streamlining 911 call-processing protocols.
Online Simulator Teaches Bystanders How to React to Sudden Cardiac Arrest
Using a new interactive online resource, the public can learn more about how to react if they witness a sudden cardiac arrest. Launched by the Medtronic Foundation’s HeartRescue Project in April, the Save-A-Life Simulator walks potential bystanders through a step-by-step scenario in which a man falls unconscious in a mall. Visitors to the site can “approach” the man and shake him to see if he’s responsive; they are then prompted about what to do next. Each step includes two choices: The right choices save his life; the wrong ones end with EMS pulling a white sheet over his face.
Since the launch, more than 750,000 people have gone through the two-minute simulation, says Joan Mellor, program manager for the HeartRescue Project. The main message is to prepare bystanders to act: to call 911, start chest compressions immediately and use an AED, if available.
“When it comes to responding to SCA, the worst thing you can do is nothing,” said Michael Sayre, M.D., previously the medical director of the HeartRescue project and currently a partner in Washington state, in a news release. “This experience was designed to provide a new way of engaging people, encouraging them to learn about SCA and how to respond by immersing them in a virtual, yet life-like experience.”
For more information, visit heartrescuenow.com.
