EMS One-Stop

This episode of Inside EMS is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.

In this episode of Inside EMS, Kelly Grayson rejoins Cohost Chris Cebollero to discuss his recent medical scare and to celebrate 10 years of Inside EMS.

Kelly recently suffered a massive pulmonary embolus, which severely compromised blood flow to nearly 100% of both his lungs.

Though he admits delaying care was not the brightest decision at the time, he now knows how close he came to losing his life, and is committed to taking his health seriously – both mental and physical.

“Be good patients and don’t be stupid. We are the world’s worst at taking care of ourselves.”

“It slapped me upside the face on April 14 that it’s time to start walking the walk about your own health.“

“Even if you have the capacity to rationalize, and the capacity to be clinically analytic during your own medical emergency, ultimately, all it’s going to do is give you piece of mind when you die that you knew what killed you.”

• ‘Is this what dying feels like?’
  

This episode of EMS One-Stop With Rob Lawrence is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.

This edition of the EMS One-Stop podcast spotlights the popular online education series Reel Emergency, which uses real bodycam footage to illustrate various types of medical emergencies. The footage is then discussed in a live broadcast by very well-known emergency medicine physicians, Drs. Peter Antevy, Mark Piehl and David Spiro.

Reel Emergency offers free continuing education credit on the day of the Prodigy EMS based broadcast (you must be in the live audience to receive CE) and is then made available via YouTube for all to view and use as part of their clinical education. 

Reel Emergency has now produced 15 episodes and has been viewed tens of thousands of times as both individuals and departments benefit from the content, the expert analysis and commentary, as well as subject matter expert guests.

In this podcast, Rob Lawrence chats with Reel Emergency’s regular host Hilary Gates, director of educational strategy for Prodigy EMS; and Zach Dunlap, clinical education specialist from 410 Medical.

Zach also previously worked for an agency that pioneered the use of body-worn cameras in EMS and offers insight into their adoption and use. 

TOP QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE

“These real patient videos actually show what’s happening on a call. Where else do you get that? You can’t get that anywhere else and there’s something to be said for doing scenarios and having standardized patients or mannikins, but nothing beats watching the actual call itself because you also have all of the other elements of the call that are really hard to recreate in the classroom. You have all of the emotions all of the bystanders, all of the equipment, the communication aspects you have to worry about, and you have real human reactions” — Hilary Gates

“If you are an educator, and you are teaching a certain topic – anatomy, physiology, scene management, all operations, whatever it is – and there is a way to illustrate that, you should be required to illustrate it with a video – there’s just no better way to do it.” — Hilary Gates

“It should almost be a requirement at this point, the main reason people don’t want body cameras in EMS is because it’s grossly misunderstood.” — Zach Dunlap

EPISODE CONTENTS

1:00 – Introductions

01:35 – REEL Emergency

02:20 – Everyone knows Drs. Spiro, Antevy and Piehl

4:00 – Using video for education

6:10 – Gaining free CE and watching on-demand

07:20 – Using body-worn cameras on the street

08:23 – Using BWCs for performance improvement

11:25 – Suggesting that BWC eventually become the standard of care

12:50 – Where does Reel emergency get its videos from?

14:00 – Filming the Falmouth Road Race and heat emergencies

15:20 – How to view Reel Emergency?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES ON THIS TOPIC

Current Reel Emergency topics include sessions on HP CPR, heat emergencies, peds emergencies, junctional hemorrhage, ped airways, anaphylaxis, intracranial emergencies, delirium, end of life care, GSWs and altered mental status.

Following are additional resources on incorporating body-worn cameras:

• Promoting transparency and accountability with BWCs

ABOUT OUR GUESTS

Zach Dunlap began his EMS career as a paramedic in Amarillo, Texas. After working in Oklahoma City, he returned to the Texas panhandle, where he worked as a flight paramedic for several years. Zach now resides in Houston, and has served as a flight paramedic and clinical director for a progressive 911 system. Currently, he is a clinical education specialist for a national medical company educating and training clinicians across the country on volume resuscitation. Zach obtained his bachelor’s in emergency health sciences and has always focused on providing excellent patient care through innovative approaches. Zach enjoys sports and spending time with his two children, Brogan and Brynlee, and their Goldendoodle, Claire. Zach is also the assistant treasurer of the Board of Commissioners of Harris County ESD11 in northern Houston.

Hilary Gates, MAEd, NRP, is the director of educational strategy for Prodigy EMS and a volunteer paramedic in the Alexandria (Virginia) Fire Department. She is also a faculty member of the School of Education at American University in Washington, D.C., and teaches Introduction to Community Health in the EM Program at University of Pittsburgh. Beginning her career as a volunteer EMT with the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad in Montgomery County, Maryland, Hilary became a full-time paramedic, EMT instructor and FTO at AFD, and then served as senior editorial and program director for EMS World. She implemented AFD’s MIH/CP program in 2017 and has extensive experience as an EMS educator, symposium presenter and quality improvement trainer.

ABOUT THE REEL EMERGENCY PANEL

Dr. David Spiro is a pediatric emergency physician and professor at University of Arkansas Medical System, and he is chief medical officer of Reel Dx. Dr. Peter Antevy is a nationally recognized lecturer and expert in the field of prehospital pediatrics and cofounder of Handtevy Pediatric Emergency Standards. He currently serves as the EMS medical director for multiple fire and rescue departments in Florida. Dr. Mark Piehl is a board-certified pediatrician and pediatric intensivist at WakeMed Hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina, and co-founder of 410 Medical.

CONNECT WITH OUR GUESTS

Hilary Gates:

• Linkedin

Zach Dunlap:

• Linkedin

RATE AND REVIEW THE EMS ONESTOP PODCAST

Enjoying the show? Please take a moment to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. Contact the EMS One-Stop team at [email protected] to share ideas, suggestions and feedback.

This episode of Inside EMS is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.

In this episode of Inside EMS, Host Chris Cebollero is joined by Firefighter/Paramedic Steve Whitehead, NREMT-P, and scholar-practitioner Nick Nudell, PhD(c).

Real-life friends, Whitehead and Nudell bring forth an EMS debate in which they find themselves on opposite sides: the importance of reporting mechanism of injury.

In paramedic school, they teach us to take what we see at the scene and bring that into the hospital – to take photos, describe the damage to the vehicle, etc., Chris notes. But, does it matter?

Chris listens to their perspectives as they state their case, and then makes his decision. Listen in and let us know your thoughts: is reporting mechanism of injury important?

“This is one of the few things in EMS in which we need to own. Because if we make a mistake and we evaluate the mechanism of injury wrong, no one else can fix that for us.” — Steve Whitehead

“For all except the most unusual mechanisms of injury, the photo is likely worthless.” — Steve Whitehead

“The critical things that the trauma surgeons are really trying to get at in that moment when the patient arrives is – is their airway patent, are they breathing, is their blood circulating – they are going to the ABCs, just like we do.” — Nick Nudell

Steve Whitehead

Steve Whitehead, NREMT-P, is an EMS instructor with the South Metro Fire Rescue Authority in Lone Tree, Colorado, and the creator of the blog The EMT Spot. He is a primary instructor for South Metro's EMT program and a lifelong student of emergency medicine. Reach him through his blog at [email protected].

Nick Nudell

Scholar-practitioner Nick Nudell, PhD(c), is the manager of trauma research services for UCHealth, in Loveland, Colorado; and the president of the American Paramedic Association. He has more than 24 years of data science, public policy and paramedicine experience at all levels, including as a hospital and ambulance-based clinician, educator, consultant, regulator, program manager, executive and researcher.

His research interests include innovative governance models and improving health system design to reduce systemic healthcare disparities through mixed methods research concentrated on system design and implementation. He is an advocate for social justice and health equity, interested in discovering the most appropriate resources to provide for a person's needs, in suitable locations, at the right time.

Additionally, through his clinical practice, he has gained significant real-world field and academic experience with behavioral health and substance use disorders that contribute to his health equity and social justice scholarship.

This episode of EMS One-Stop With Rob Lawrence is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.

In this edition of the EMS One-Stop podcast, Host Rob Lawrence speaks with Dr. Maia Dorsett and Paramedic Nikki Little to discuss the NAEMSP Quality Improvement and Safety Course, an exciting year-long course that provides EMS physicians and quality improvement leaders with the knowledge and skills necessary to lead QI and patient safety initiatives in their region, system or agency. Participants will develop an in-depth understanding of how to apply QI tools and strategies to their local needs to affect the care of patients.

Dr. Dorsett and Little identify that the program will take participants on a journey to improve the quality of care and safety in their system through a multi-modal approach in sessions led by expert faculty, who will discuss key aspects of quality improvement.

TOP QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE

“I think one of the things I love about this course is half the faculty are not physicians. There is a fair percentage of NAEMSP membership that are not physicians and the quality course especially is very deliberate. It has faculty from different backgrounds.” — Dr. Dorsett

“Your system is complex; all of the policies and procedures and processes that you have set up for the folks to work in them, they don’t always work as designed.” — Nikki Little

“Once a month, and even more often than that, because you meet with your mentees, you get to really collaborate idea-wise and work together with a group of people who are all there committed to making improvements in their system.” — Dr. Dorsett

“So many quality leaders are still stuck in this in this moment, where they’re looking at 50% in May and 52% in June, and we’re just comparing these two numbers and making massive strategic decisions about things that might be seasonal or have abnormal variation and we could be really making some really dumb mistakes if we’re not looking at our data over time.” — Nikki Little

EPISODE CONTENTS

02:00 – Introduction – Nikki Little

2:25 – Introduction – Dr. Maia Dorsett

02:40 – Description of the course

03:30 – Quality Course origin story

05:30 – Little’s experience as an inaugural participant

0745 – Month-by-month syllabus

10:00 – PDSAs and brevity in QI

13:00 – Capstone and results presentation

15:20 – Little’s course highlights

17:29 – Dorsett’s course highlights

21:25 – This course is not just for physicians

23:10 – Course overall timeline

24:30 – Cohort presentations at the annual meeting and poster presentations

26:20 – Class sign-up details

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES ON THIS TOPIC 

NAEMSP Year-Long Quality Improvement and Safety Course

ABOUT OUR GUESTS

Maia Dorsett, MD, PhD, is an emergency medicine and EMS physician and educator. She completed her EMS fellowship at Washington University before moving to Rochester, New York, where she now serves as the medical director for EMS education at Monroe Community College and is the associate regional medical director for education and quality for the Monroe-Livingston Region. She is also the medical director for Gates Volunteer Ambulance as well as Prodigy EMS. Nationally, she serves on the board of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the National Registry of EMTs. She is involved in quality improvement implementation and education, serving as the co-course director for the NAEMSP Quality and Safety course.

Nikki Little, FAEMS, has fulfilled many roles as a paramedic, including advanced care paramedic, district chief of paramedic operations, 911 communication supervisor, and quality and patient safety officer in almost 30 years in EMS. She has a passion for patient-centered quality improvement of systems and has advocated for policy advances in the areas of patient safety, team communication and opioid overdose. She has dedicated countless hours to improve the quality and safety of patients with non-transport dispositions, (especially elderly and at-risk persons) and to improve the care for patients experiencing acute coronary syndromes (with particular focus on gender disparities in care). She has also contributed through committee work by way of the Paramedic Chiefs of Canada and the Manitoba Chapter of the Canadian Women’s Heart Health Alliance. In the area of quality improvement and paramedic education, she is in her sixth year as faculty of the National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP) Quality and Safety Year-Long capstone course and preconference workshop. Her dedication to furthering the educational mission of the organization, and skill in teaching patient safety and improvement science to paramedic professionals and EMS physicians was duly recognized when she was named co-director.

CONNECT WITH OUR GUESTS

• Maia Dorsett

999, London Ambulance Service Deputy Director Simon Harding talks emergency planning for the royal gathering

This episode of EMS One-Stop With Rob Lawrence is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.

Recorded with less than 24 hours to go before the coronation of King Charles III, of England, host Rob Lawrence sits down with Simon Harding, deputy director of the London Ambulance Service to discuss planning for the coronation. Harding also serves as deputy director of the London's 999 control centers.

Harding begins by highlighting the construct of ambulance services in the United Kingdom, as well as the scope and operation of the London Ambulance Service, which serves 9 million citizens of the national capitol, plus visitors. LAS takes over 2 million 999 (the UK equivalent of 911) calls a year in addition to 2 million 111 calls (for non-emergency responses).

Harding and Rob discuss how incident management operates in the UK, using the GOLD, SILVER and BRONZE levels of command, and the roles and responsibilities at each level.

They talk about the plans for the coronation and how LAS – in partnership with public safety and military planners – are preparing to support the historic event.

Resources mentioned in this episode

• London Ambulance Service

Additional resources for mass gathering planning

• Boston EMS' Joe O'Hare: All hazards incident management

Jon Lee joins the podcast to discuss following the evidence and pharmacology research insights

This episode of Inside EMS is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.

In this episode, one of Chris Cebollero’s favorite authors, Jonathan Lee, joins Chris for a discussion of his most recent article, a research analysis examining the benefits of midazolam vs. morphine.

While morphine is the go-to drug when it comes to cardiac events, once you look at the research, there are some red flags, Lee notes.

Lee’s analysis focused on

• The in-hospital mortality had no significant difference between midazolam versus morphine

Listen in to the discussion.

Resources mentioned in this episode

• Jonathan Lee: Front-line pharm

About our guest

Jonathan Lee is a critical care paramedic with Ornge in Toronto, Canada, with over 25 years of experience in 911, critical care, aeromedical and pediatric critical care transport. Jonathan’s teaching experience includes classroom, clinical and field education as well as curriculum development and design across a number of health professions.

He is currently delivering KinderMedic, a program he developed to improve the confidence and competence of prehospital providers caring for acutely ill children. In addition to his clinical practice, he is also adjunct faculty in the Paramedic Program at Georgian College. Jonathan is a freelance author and has been invited to speak across North America and Europe on topics such as pediatrics, analgesia and stress.

Jonathan has previously served on committees for professional organizations including the Ontario Paramedic Association and NAEMT. He is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Critical Care from Cardiff University. Jonathan can be contacted via Twitter and LinkedIn.

Rate and review Inside EMS

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Catch a new episode every Friday on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, PodBean, Amazon Music, Stitcher, Spotify, and RSS feed.

This episode of EMS One-Stop With Rob Lawrence is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.

Ginny Renkiewicz, PhD, is an assistant professor of healthcare administration in the College of Health Sciences and Human Services at Methodist University, Fayetteville North Carolina. Dr. Renkiewicz has been involved in EMS for 21 years as a credentialed paramedic, administrator and leader. Her specific research interests include defining predictors and profiling traumatic stress syndromes in EMS personnel and she recently had two papers published in the U.K. and U.S. on subjects related to her research interests.

In this edition of EMS One-Stop, Rob Lawrence and Dr. Renkiewicz discuss her publications, “Secondary trauma response in emergency services systems (STRESS) project: quantifying and predicting vicarious trauma in emergency medical services personnel,” which discusses the emotional countertransference that occurs between the clinician and patient, and “Maladaptive Cognitions in EMS Professionals as a Function of the COVID-19 Pandemic,” which analyses how the coronavirus disease pandemic has profoundly affected EMS professionals.

TOP QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE

“I don’t think we will ever go back to normal; this is kind of like 911. There was before 9/11, and there was after 9/11, and this is going to be before COVID, and after COVID.”

“Vicarious trauma is emotional counter, transference; essentially, you are feeling what the patient feels when they’re experiencing a traumatic event. Example being, if you had a call, for example, a stillbirth, you may for the following weeks or months have this weird aversion to children or things in which infants are involved and you may have a stress response to those situations in the same way that the patient would have.”

“Post traumatic stress injury is not the only stress disorder that exists out there. It is the one that I think most frequently cited by educators and administrators, because we don’t know all of the other more insidious stress disorders, of which vicarious trauma is one.”

“A predictor of having vicarious trauma as an EMS professional; my hypothesis is that if your parents or whomever your caregivers are do not teach you how to appropriately and emotionally cope with anything in any situation, it becomes very difficult for you to know how to do it properly in your adult life and so you overcompensate, and so vicarious trauma occurs in that population.”

EPISODE CONTENTS

1:12 – Introduction: Dr. Ginny Renkiewicz

1:55 – Ginny’s academic career

3:00 – The development of research on EMS

4:50 – Paper discussion – secondary trauma response

09:00 – Education on stress disorders

11:24 – Therapy dog program

12:30 – Next steps/further work on resilience training

1530 – Maladaptive cognitions

17:20 – Getting published in the SOM Journal

19:00 – Learning, conclusions and takeaways

23:00 – The new normal

24:18 – Call to action for leaders

26:13 – NHTSA Listening Group on wellness, resilience and peer support programs

27:30 – Getting involved in research

31:00 – NAEMT Lighthouse leadership program

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES ON THIS TOPIC

• Secondary trauma response in emergency services systems (STRESS) project: quantifying and predicting vicarious trauma in emergency medical services personnel

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Dr. Ginny Renkiewicz is an assistant professor of healthcare administration in the College of Health Sciences and Human Services Methodist University, Fayetteville, North Carolina. She has been involved in EMS for 21 years as a credentialed paramedic and Level II paramedic instructor. She has spent 17 years as a program director, division chair or department head and has been recognized for her contribution to the EMS profession as a Fellow of the Academy of Emergency Medical Services (FAEMS) through the National Association of EMS Physicians. She has won several national and international awards, including National EMS Educator of the Year and the global EMS10 Award for innovation in the field of EMS.

She holds an Associate of Applied Science in Sign Language Interpreting degree from Wilson Community College, a Bachelor of Science in Emergency Medical Care with a concentration in EMS management and a Master of Health Science in EMS education (both from Western Carolina University), and a Ph.D. in Health Science with a concentration in Respiratory Care from Rush University. Dr. Renkiewicz is a reviewer for several peer-reviewed journals; serves as executive director of the Foundation for Prehospital Medicine Research; and is enthusiastic about research, innovation and student mentoring. She is also the vice chair of the North Carolina Association of EMS Educators. Her specific research interests include defining predictors and profiling traumatic stress syndromes in EMS personnel.

CONNECT WITH OUR GUEST

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @DrKrankyPants

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ginnyrenkiewicz

RATE AND REVIEW THE EMS ONESTOP PODCAST

Enjoying the show? Please take a moment to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. Contact the EMS One-Stop team at [email protected] to share ideas, suggestions and feedback.

This episode of Inside EMS is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.

In this episode of Inside EMS, cohost Chris Cebollero reflects on his time in the military and the privilege of serving in the military’s Honor Guard. Chris explains the significance of the 13 folds of the American flag and the honor felt in folding the flag that would be given to a family member of a fallen servicemember.

Chris is joined by Folds of Honor’s Senior Vice President of Outreach, Luke Sherman. Sherman is a past chairman and now senior member with the Board of Directors for the National Tactical Officers Association; a 29 year veteran of the Tulsa Police Department; and owner and principal with Aegis CPG, a Tulsa-based security consulting company.

Sherman shares how the Folds of Honor scholarship program will now benefit first responders, including paramedics and EMTS.

Lt. Col. Dan Rooney started Folds of Honor after his second tour of duty in Iraq. As a fighter pilot in the Oklahoma Air National Guard, he became painfully aware of the realities families face when a loved one in uniform is fallen or disabled.

On his return flight home, the pilot announced the plane carried the remains of Corporal Brock Bucklin on board. Lt. Col. Rooney watched as Corporal Bucklin’s twin brother walked somberly alongside the flag-covered casket to meet his family on the tarmac.

Lt. Col. Rooney committed to meeting sacrifice with hope through Folds of Honor, providing life-changing scholarships to the spouses and children of America’s fallen or disabled servicemembers. Folds of honor has awarded more than 44,000 educational scholarships totalling about $200M since 2007

And now, the mission expands to the families of America’s first responders.

Additional resources

Learn more about supporting Folds of Honor’s mission to help fund educational opportunities for military and first responder families, or to apply for a scholarship at FoldsOfHonor.org.

This episode of EMS One-Stop With Rob Lawrence is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.

COVID-19 was declared a Public Health Emergency (PHE) on Jan. 31, 2020, and was extended a number of times, but it is now set to expire on May 11, 2023. In this episode of EMS One-Stop, Rob Lawrence is joined by Doug Wolfberg, Esq., of Page, Wolfberg & Wirth to discuss the immediate actions organizations should take (or should have already taken) to preserve documentation relating to the PHE, as well as adjust operational and documentation practices and procedures as we “return to normal.”

Rob and Doug discuss issues such as rule changes that have become normal operating procedures over the last 2 years and the need to build a time capsule to preserve evidence. They also cover patient signatures, telehealth changes, transport to alternate destinations, agency licensing and Physician Certification Statements.

Doug, a lifelong Beatles music fan, also shares that he has just published a book: “The Beatles: Fab but True: Remarkable Stories Revealed” and will be undertaking a book signing tour in the UK later in the year.

TOP QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE

At the end of the PHE, “We revert back to the standard inflexible Medicare signature rules which means that the patient needs to be the signer, and the only time that you can get a signature from anyone else is if that patient is physically or mentally incapable of signing that statement.”

EPISODE CONTENTS

1:12 – End of the PHE announced

2:00 – Rule changes have become normal operating procedures

2:20 – The need to build a time capsule to preserve evidence

4:30 – Big change ticket item number one – patient signatures

6:40 – A reminder to establish the reason the patient is unable to sign a PCR

7:20 – Telehealth changes                                                

10:00 – Transport to alternative destination coverage ends (but place your pandemic local clinical guidance in your time capsule now!)

13:07 – ET3 – not affected and is separate

15:24 – Doug and the Beatles

17:52 – Ambulance staffing waver also going away

18:55 – Agency licensing back into full force – no more grace periods

21:12 – Physician Certification Statements (PCS) – do not cut corners on your PCS signatures

22:15 – Leaders pay attention to this podcast

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES ON THIS TOPIC

• CMS Waivers, Flexibilities, and the Transition Forward from the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Doug Wolfberg is a founding partner of Page, Wolfberg & Wirth, and one of the best-known EMS attorneys and consultants in the United States. Widely regarded as the nation’s leading EMS law firm, PWW represents private, public and non-profit EMS organizations, as well as billing companies, software manufacturers and others that serve the nation’s ambulance industry. Doug answered his first ambulance call in 1978 and has been involved in EMS ever since. Doug became an EMT at age 16, and worked as an EMS provider in numerous volunteer and paid systems over the decades. Doug also served as an EMS educator and instructor for many years.

After earning his undergraduate degree in Health Planning and Administration from Pennsylvania State University in 1987, Doug went to work as a county EMS director. He then became the director of a three-county regional EMS agency based in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. He then moved on to work for several years on the staff of the state EMS council. In 1993, Doug went to the nation’s capital to work at the United States Department of Health and Human Services, where he worked on federal EMS and trauma care issues. Doug left HHS to attend law school, and in 1996 graduated magna cum laude from Widener University School of Law. After practicing for several years as a litigator and healthcare attorney in a large Philadelphia-based law firm, Doug co-founded PWW in 2000 along with Steve Wirth and the late James O. Page. As an attorney, Doug is a member of the Pennsylvania and New York Bar Associations, and is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court as well as numerous Federal and state courts. He also teaches EMS law at the University of Pittsburgh, and teaches health law at the Widener University School of Law, where he is also a member of the school’s Board of Overseers.

Doug is a known as an engaging and humorous public speaker at EMS conferences throughout the United States. He is also a prolific author, having written books, articles and columns in many of the industry’s leading publications, and has been interviewed by national media outlets including National Public Radio and the Wall Street Journal on EMS issues. Doug is a Certified Ambulance Coder (CAC) and a founder of the National Academy of Ambulance Coding (NAAC). Doug also served as a commissioner of the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services (CAAS).

In his free time, Doug is an avid bicyclist and musician.

CONNECT WITH OUR GUEST

Website: www.pwwemslaw.com

Email: www.pwwemslaw.com/contact#

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/douglas-wolfberg-099ab236

RATE AND REVIEW THE EMS ONE-STOP PODCAST

Enjoying the show? Please take a moment to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. Contact the EMS One-Stop team at [email protected] to share ideas, suggestions and feedback.

This episode of Inside EMS is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.

According to Bureau of Labor statistics, for healthcare workers, assault is the most common source of nonfatal injury or illness requiring time off of work.

In this episode of Inside EMS, Host Chris Cebollero is joined by Jason Brooks, BAS, EMT-P, I/C, to discuss the rising frequency of assaults against EMS providers.

Brooks owns and operates DT4EMS, LLC, providing defensive tactics for escaping, mitigating and surviving violent attacks. He has been in the EMS profession for over 25 years, serving as a firefighter, paramedic, paramedic educator and EMS administrator.  He has spent nearly a decade studying the issue of violence in healthcare.

Together, they discuss:

• Personal defense and de-escalation training

If you’re being threatened, you need to make the decision, “is this safe for me to stay here?”

“It's not patient abandonment to leave a scene that's unsafe.”

“There's no law out there that says that you have to sit there and be abused, be assaulted, etc. If it's unsafe, we need to know that care can end.”

“If it gets to the point where it's escalated so quickly, if you have to leave equipment behind for your safety, leave it.”

• Special coverage: Protecting EMS providers from violence

Enjoying the show? Please take a moment to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. Contact the Inside EMS team at [email protected] to share ideas, suggestions and feedback, or if you’d like to join us as a guest.