The debate has started in the Blog and Twitter worlds regarding EMS Pay. Is it possible to support a family on a 40 hour paycheck as an EMT or Paramedic? Many say “no” and its hard to find people who can make it work. In the Company I work for, the desire for more money is always there, but I feel that there is a big misconception in a lot of EMS Services, my own included. Like it or not, EMS is still in its “toddler” phase. We’ve just learned to walk, and we will eventually learn how to run. We’re sitting here, eyes at table level looking at that juicy prize that is just out of our reach, and we need to figure out how to get it. For the time being, we might need to work for less money and show our value, so we can get more pay in the future. We need to let our field develop and play active rolls in its development. Many, however, want to be given pay for a job not yet done. People want the pay in order to make them professionals. What we need to do is be professional to earn that desired pay. The important task to focus on now is to work on our image in the public’s eye as providers, people, and caregivers. We need to show the population that we serve what we are capable of. It’s rather clear that we, within our community, convey our message to each other. This is evident simply by looking at the Social Networking movement that many of us are involved with. We need to find a public forum. We need to find a way to get people listen. Public education I feel is a great path for us all to start down. Bring people in for mass CPR classes, and couple it with a piece about who the EMTs and Paramedics are. We need to try and establish partnerships and get involved with organizations like the Red Cross. When our people go above and beyond, put them out there, and show the world what they have done. None of us want the world’s...

Hello, everyone! The time has come to get a hold of your EMS 2.0 Pin! Wear it with pride, and let those around you see that you support the movement. If just two people asks each of us what it means, and they buy in to the movement, and then they tell two people…. well… you see where I’m going with this! This first batch of pins is going for a very special price of $7. After the first 100 pins are gone, I will be figuring out how many more I need to order. After this first batch, the price will be going up to $10 a pin but that will just be to cover my expenses for shipping. As of right now, ALL PURCHASES will be done through Paypal. Please just make sure your shipping address is correct. Also, please bare with me. I’m doing all of the shipping and organizing myself. I will be sending them out in the order they were received. ALL Proceeds from the sale of these pins will be going to Justin, Ted, Mark, and the entire Chronicles of EMS Team! This is a great way to show that you believe in the EMS 2.0 Movement, and an easy way to display it professionally on your uniform. Come on, people! Lets get the word out, and get people talking! For a picture of the Pin, and a Link to purchase one, go to http://medicsbk.tripod.com Finally, I am looking for some help from anyone who might be good at working with Websites. Drop me an email or a message on Twitter if you’re...

  Before I get to the meat and potatoes of this blog I feel I should firs clarify a few things. The fire departments in this country are staffed by some of the hardest working most highly skilled professionals I’ve had the pleasure of working with.They risk their lives everyday, and put others before themselves without a second thought.If I could shake each of their hands and thank each of them personally for that I would. Their job is a very important one, and they are an essential piece of the Public Safety model in this country. Over the past 30 years, Fire Suppression and more importantly Fire Prevention has greatly improved nation wide.Fires are down almost everywhere you go.Fire inspection regulations and building codes have become more strict.Fire Fighters are better trained and better prepared to do their jobs than they ever have been.They have achieved their desired result: less fires.Now, with less fires, the question that comes up is “what do we do with all of these fire fighters?”You now have all of these municipal employees doing so much less work at higher wages than they’ve been paid in the past.The result: find more work for them or lay them off. None of this should be viewed as the Fire Departments’ fault.The blame should be placed (dare I say) on our local and state Politicians who stare at spread sheets all day and worry about the all mighty dollar.Lets face it, if Fire Prevention wasn’t what it is, and Crime was instead exponentially down, Ambulances would be driving around with the words “Police Department” on the side of them.The Cash Cow that is the ambulance business would be moved to which ever department was in the bigger budget crisis. Getting back to the problem at hand though, the answer to budget shortfalls has been simple for many departments: Respond to Medical Calls, either in a first response capacity or take over the ambulance.Lets face it, Ambulance runs mean volume and money.Money means jobs.Its a no brainer, right? Wrong.The result in some of our largest cities has been to put a band aid on a sucking chest wound.Take a look at these examples...

Up until about five months ago, I found myself in a real down period in my career. I wasn’t really sure where I wanted to go, or where I wanted to end up. All I knew was I needed to freshen things up a little bit. Then, one afternoon, I got that call with the offer to do some time in Alameda County. As I had previously mentioned here, it was a great experience, and that is where I learned about Chronicles of EMS. In the months since, I’ve imersed myself in the Chronicles, and I’ve begun exploring the Social Media aspect of the choice I made for my career: Emergency Medical Services. This has included reading up on some great blogs, spending quite a bit of time making friends on Twitter, and most importantly, my discovery of the EMS 2.0 movement. Recently, I got thinking, what can I do to support and spread the word? For me, it has started with the word of mouth. I’ve told some of my colleagues where I work about it, and steered as many people as I can in that direction. I’ve cornered Paramedic and EMT Instructors at my place of employment, and made efforts to contact my old college professors, all in an attempt to let them know about this great thing I’ve found, in hopes that they will share it with their students. Last week, another idea came to mind. I was trying to think of a way to bring the EMS 2.0 agenda to those around me, and hopefully spark some questions and interest in this new movement that I was becoming so proud of. I loved the t-shirts, but I wanted something I could wear to work, since that’s where I spend my time with the people who this should matter to most, and that’s when it hit me: a pin. The idea I came up with is simple, really. The half blue and half red Star of Life signifies the first obstacle that EMS 2.0 must overcome: the unification of EMS. Maybe if I’m lucky, two people will come up to me and ask “hey, what’s that pin about?” And they will...

Many of us in the EMS community were shocked this morning when we woke up and read the News Headline about the Bucks County, PA Paramedic who was killed by a Psych Patient he was chasing after. I found out about it from my new friends on Twitter. My thoughts and prayers go out to his wife and children who are now left fatherless. So I went to work today, just like any other day, in my mid-sized far-from-safe American City. It was quite the typical day for the most part: MVA’s, a nice mix of medical, trauma and behavioral calls, busy ERs.. I’m sure many of you know how it goes. But one call stood out to me as soon as I was advised about it. One of my crews had responded to an address for an unknown, which turned out to be a suicidal male. When they arrived, they found a rather irate man in a domestic dispute with is girlfriend. He had taken a handful of pills in an attempt to harm himself. When one of my medics advised him that he had lost any option by his actions of staying at home, and was going to have to take a ride to the ER, he got even more upset, and pulled a knife on my crew. Somehow, the two Medics were able to get it away from him. At this point, they called on the air, and requested that the police department expedite their response. That is when I found out about it. They then stated that the patient was fleeing the scene, and gave out his description. The scenario played over in my head, based on what I had read earlier in the morning. What was going to happen next? My first concern was the safety of my Medics, and making sure they stay safe. I arrived on scene moments before the police department, thankfully to find both medics standing on the front step of the patient’s apartment building, both unharmed. They showed me his weapon of choice: a kitchen knife with a half broken off handle. The patient’s girlfriend then pointed out that he was returning to the...

When the movie Level Zero came out last year, I was extremely excited. I think everyone who operates in this medium and in our field can agree that there is a complete and total lacking of positive press, and realistic examples of what we do as a profession. It did not take me long at all to email the Level Zero Link to everyone that I knew, whether they were in the field or not. I loved the viewpoints of those featured in the movie, and thought that they had a lot to say about what we did. Little did I know, but a little more than a year later, I would have a chance to experience the streets featured in Level Zero first hand. I got a call at the beginning of December from a colleague of mine who needed my assistance. There were some computer systems out in Alameda County that needed some tweaking, and some additional education that went with it. I was offered an all expenses paid trip out to ALCO, where I would get to spend 40 hours or there about riding along on the streets of Oakland and its surrounding communities. How could I say no? I had a great experience that week. It was really eye opening. Every truck I got on had a crew that welcomed me, was willing to answer questions about their system, and had plenty of questions about my system and where I came from. I’ll be honest, this trip was more than just a “Help the company” opportunity for me. I walked away with many ideas about system design, system status management, and crew attitude and motivation that I could take back with me to where I worked and improve the quality of my service. I feel like I sound like a broken record sometimes. The words “when I was in California” come out of my mouth more times than I can count. The topic of Level Zero the Movie came up with one of the crews I was with, and they were quick to explain to me the concept of Chronicles of EMS. Could it be? A chance to view more...

Last Month, the Canadian Government took the first step towards what they refer to as an increase in Labor Mobility: they are going to be standardizing the certification, assessment and recertification of Paramedics on a national level.According to the Canadian Government this is being done to make it easier for Paramedics to move throughout the country, and work acrossProvidencelines.Canadaestimates that more than 200,000 of its citizens relocate to a differentProvidenceeach year.These actions will make it easier for Paramedics to move around, and seamlessly transition from job to job. You can read the whole article here: http://news.gc.ca/web/article-eng.do?nid=511429 What was probably looked at by the Canadian population as a small step towards improving the country’s economy, it should be looked at by theEMScommunity as a big move towards unification of our industry. The EMS Leaders and Lawmakers in our country should take a good hard look at what is taking place north of the boarder and take notes.Our community has numbers, in the Public market, the Private market and still in parts of the country in the Volunteer market and uniting those people could be what propelsEMSas a whole to the next level. The things I need to practice medicine in my urban setting might not exactly fit what is needed by a rural Paramedic in the far reaches ofMontana, potentially an hour or more from the care that is needed.So how should a unified National EMS Front work?Well, from a regulatory standpoint, this is how I see it: The National EMS System would be broken up into four levels, National, Regional, State, and System.Providers would be governed by the National, Regional and System levels, and services would be monitored and dictated by the National, Regional, and State levels. 1.Certification, recertification, and core training should be standardized on a national level.The didactic, field and clinical portions of EMT and Paramedic training should be the same inArizonaas it is inMaine.This would, in theory, give every provider the same base education. 2.System qualifications should be determined by the system’s Medical Director.You are, after all, working under their license.They can determine required training needed above and beyond the CEU requirements setup nationally. 3.Protocols should have a set core at...