September 2005 EMS Wire Service

Fire Corps Announces 250th “Citizen Advocate”

A year after its launch, the Fire Corps announced that it has signed up the first 250 fire and fire/EMS departments in its “citizen advocates” program.

Citizen advocates help the Fire Corps, a program partner of the Citizen Corps, expand departments’ existing programs—or develop new ones—aimed at recruiting civilian volunteers to provide support in nonoperational roles. “Our goal,” says Fire Corps director Shawn Stokes, “is to…involve as many fire departments as we can throughout the country in this very worthwhile endeavor.”

Departments that have Fire Corps programs can register at www.firecorps.org, a site civilians seeking opportunities to serve their communities can use to locate departments in their areas with particular needs for assistance. Matching registered departments with interested citizens, program officials say, can bring a wide variety of skills and talents together in support of the fire service.

Nonoperational roles filled by civilians can include administrative support, life-safety education, fundraising and more. “These individuals provide support in ways that allow department personnel to concentrate on…fighting fires and protecting the public,” says Stokes.

—Fire Corps

No Benefit to ALS for Trauma, TBI Patients?

Recently released results from the long-running Ontario Prehospital Advanced Life Support (OPALS) study suggest that ALS?interventions do not significantly improve survival rates or outcomes for patients with major trauma or traumatic brain injuries.

One study presented at the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s annual meeting in May reported that 82.1% of trauma patients who received BLS treatment survived, compared to 81.1% of those who got ALS interventions. Another found that 54.4% of traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients treated with BLS interventions survived, versus 54.8% of those receiving ALS care. Both studies discovered no significant differences in ultimate functional independence among the treatment groups.

The OPALS study is designed to assess the cost-effectiveness of prehospital ALS programs across Canada. Researchers believe its results will help policy makers better determine priorities for funding prehospital care.

-www.MERGINET.com

DHS, Red Cross Join to Push Preparedness

The Department of Homeland Security has joined with the American Red Cross to cosponsor National Preparedness Month, which will run for the duration of September.

The idea of the month is to increase public awareness about the importance of being prepared for emergencies, and to encourage Americans to become prepared in their homes, schools and workplaces. Says Red Cross president/CEO Marsha Evans: “No community is truly prepared for a disaster until every individual, family and household takes personal responsibility for preparedness.”

More than 125 national organizations, including the National Association of State EMS Directors and several top fire-service groups, have joined the National Preparedness Month Coalition and will help distribute emergency-preparedness information, host events and sponsor activities around the country.

—Department of Homeland Security

EMSC Honors Partners for Child Passenger Safety

The Emergency Medical Services for Children program’s National Heroes Award for outstanding research has gone to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and State Farm Insurance Companies for their “pioneering research” on children’s safety in motor vehicles. The organizations’ partnership, known as Partners for Child Passenger Safety (PCPS), “has provided essential data and expertise” to support new state and federal laws on safety standards for and restraint use by child passengers.

PCPS created the first national child-focused surveillance system for motor-vehicle crashes. It has now collected information on more than 377,000 crashes involving 557,000 children 15 and under.

—Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Audit Finds Problems at Houston 9-1-1 Center

Houston’s $53 million emergency dispatch center, opened in 2003, is plagued by staffing shortages and a “confrontational environment” that could jeopardize the fast response to 9-1-1 calls, a controller’s audit released in July concluded.

City controller Annise Parker found that staff shortages, exacerbated by high levels of enforced overtime and resulting absenteeism, have resulted in pervasively low morale that “may place at risk the delivery, quality and reliability of critical emergency response services.”

Equipment and software problems have also plagued the center, according to the Houston Chronicle, but most of those have been resolved.

Parker’s report concluded that the center could save $6.7 million by implementing certain changes, including establishing a unified organizational structure, with fire, police and civilian workers under a central authority; recruiting additional civilian telecommunicators to reduce forced overtime; and addressing morale issues among employees.

—Houston Chronicle

Emergency Docs to March on Washington

The American College of Emergency Physicians is planning a massive demonstration at the U.S. Capitol during its annual Scientific Assembly later this month in Washington, DC.

The rally, which will be ACEP’s largest-ever advocacy event, is aimed at prompting lawmakers to help Americans get better access to emergency care. “ED crowding, ambulance diversion, the on-call crisis, the medical-liability crisis, the financial consequences of EMTALA, rising numbers of uninsured and underinsured and cuts in funding for emergency care are wreaking havoc,” the organization says.

The rally “must be effective,” says ACEP president Robert Suter, DO, “and it must garner national, public and Congressional attention. For that to occur, we need a huge turnout.”

It will be held on September 27 at 10 a.m. ET. Participants are urged to wear their white coats. For more, see www.acep.org.

—ACEP

Pinellas County EMS?Receives State Kudos

The state of Florida has recognized Pinellas County EMS with a trio of awards, the county announced in May.

The service’s medical director, Laurie Romig, MD, received the Raymond Alex-ander, MD, EMS Medical Director of the Year Award for her “tireless advocacy for patient care, innovative programs, prehospital research and quality improvement processes.”

As well, EMS Magazine advisory board member Chuck Kearns, director of the Pinellas County EMS and Fire Admini-stration, received the Larry J. Jordan EMS Lifetime Achievement Award for his more than 28 years as a paramedic and administrator in the field. Kearns “has been credited with designing many advances adopted by EMS systems around the nation.”

Finally, the service itself received the Emergency Medical Services for Children award for its work to reduce morbidity and mortality in children.

—Pinellas County (FL) Commission

Recommendations for Skyscraper Safety

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued a list of 30 recommendations for helping developers of building and fire-safety codes, standards and practices make changes that will better protect the occupants of tall buildings and the emergency responders who may be called to help them.

Stemming from an investigation of the World Trade Center collapse of September 11, 2001, the recommendations “should lead to safer and more effective building evacuations and emergency responses,” said lead investigator Shyam Sunder.

The recommendations, contained in 43 draft reports released for public comment in June, cover specific improvements to building codes, standards and practices; changes to evacuation and emergency-response procedures; and research and other actions needed to help prevent future building failures.

A conference is planned for September 13–15 at NIST headquarters in Gaithers-burg, MD, to discuss the findings. For the complete list of recommendations, see https://wtc.nist.gov.

—NIST