To protect EMS’s most vulnerable patients, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued new recommendations for transporting children.
Little data exist on how many children are injured while being transported in ambulances and to what extent “unsafe and inappropriate” practices contribute to injuries, according to the report, which was released in September by a working group made up of representatives from EMS, fire and ambulance organizations; NHTSA; and children’s medical organizations. Nor do existing protocols offer specific guidelines on the safe transport of kids.
The new recommendations offer broad guidelines for transporting pediatric patients, including:
- Avoiding the unnecessary use of lights and sirens
- Driver screening and background checks according to state EMS personnel policies
- Driver training and monitoring of driving practices through use of technology and other means
- Following current pediatric standards of care for injured children
- Maintaining and cleaning neonatal and child restraint seats and equipment per manufacturer’s instructions
- Securing movable equipment
- Use of seat belts and restraints for all ambulance occupants, all the time
The report also makes more detailed recommendations based on five scenarios, each with a different level of severity. One such example is the ideal way to transport a child who is ill but does not require continuous or intensive medical monitoring/intervention, as well as the next best option if the ideal isn’t available on that ambulance.
The recommendations grew out of a NHTSA initiative launched in 1998 called “Solutions to Safely Transport Children in Emergency Vehicles,” which sought to develop consensus guidelines that would be adopted by local, state and national EMS organizations. Earlier that year, it was reported that 35 states did not require patients of any age to be restrained in ambulances, according to background information in the new report. That led national EMS organizations to publish “The Do’s and Don’ts of Transporting Children in an Ambulance” in 1999, which called for securing equipment and for restraints for children, parents and EMS workers. However, the “Do’s and Don’ts” were general guidelines that left specific questions about optimal positioning, optimal restraint systems, and specifics about injury type and age of child, unanswered.
According to the new report, more study needs to be done on the crashworthiness of ambulances and ambulance design, whether one restraint system is safer than another, and the unique transportation needs of children with special health needs. “It is hoped that the recommendations provided in this report will address the lack of consistent standards or protocols among EMS and child passenger safety professionals in the United States regarding how to most safely transport children in ground ambulances from the scene of a traffic crash or medical emergency to a hospital or other facility,” the report reads.
Read the report at: here.
Using Social Media to Build Community Among EMS Employees
There’s been lots of discussion recently about the best ways to use sites such as Facebook and Twitter to communicate with members of the public. Some EMS organizations have found another use for social media: communication with employees. Take Paramedics Plus in Alameda County, Calif.
With a relatively young workforce, Paramedics Plus employees are already “heavily engaged” with social media, says Mark Postma, Paramedics Plus vice president. So to get the word out about new company initiatives and events, the company posts memos, notices and even their company newsletter on Facebook.
Recent posts include an employee blood drive notice; photos from an employee barbecue; a schedule of upcoming mandatory employee training; a thank you note from students at an elementary school visited by medics; and a picture of a teddy bear on a gurney along with this explanation: “You suggested. We listened! What a great idea ... the bears are here! Our ambulances our now stocked with furry friends for our youngest patients! Thanks everyone and keep those suggestions coming!”
Keep in mind, a vibrant Facebook community is a two-way street, with employees encouraged to join in the conversation and contribute their own comments and photos. One employee, for instance, submitted a photo of a rainbow over his ambulance parked outside just after a rain.
Another social media option is Twitter, a tool that Sunstar Paramedics in Pinellas County, Fla., used to keep in touch with employees during the approach of Hurricane Isaac in August.
Visit the Sunstar twitter page twitter.com/Sunstar_EMS. The Paramedics Plus Facebook page is at facebook.com/pages/Paramedics-Plus-Alameda-Co/110440362340810.
Hennepin EMS Gets AED Location Mapping System
To help 911 dispatchers locate AEDs during cardiac arrests, Hennepin EMS in Minnesota has deployed AED Link, an AED mapping system. Developed by Atrus Inc., a Boca Raton, Fla.-based company, AED Link connects with CAD systems to enable dispatchers to view AEDs in the vicinity of the emergency.
To be viewed, however, the AEDs have to be registered with the National AED Registry, also developed and maintained by the company. Launched in 2006, the National AED Registry has information on nearly 13,000 AEDs, and that number is growing, says Elliot Fisch, Atrus co-founder and CEO.
In addition to alerting dispatchers, AED Link notifies volunteer citizen responders, who may, for example, work in the office where the AED is located and can get to the victim even faster than EMS. “The problem is that until now, publicly available AEDs are rarely used in an emergency because people don’t know where they are, they can’t see them and 911 dispatchers are unaware of the location,” said Chris Kummer, Hennepin EMS manager, in a news release.
Getting bystanders to use AEDs is critical to boosting survival rates, Kummer adds. In 2011, Hennepin EMS responded to seven cardiac arrest cases in which a bystander used an AED—and six of those patients later left the hospital neurologically intact. “While there are many factors to survival, bystander intervention with CPR and an AED is clearly a key link to survival,” says Brian Mahoney, M.D., Hennepin EMS’s medical director. “[AED Link] can increase the number of bystander uses of AEDs so that we can have more of these great saves.”
Allina Medical Transportation in St. Paul also uses AED Link. AED owners in Minnesota can visit Minnesota.NationalAED
Registry.com to register their AEDs at no cost.
