EMT-Intermediates and Paramedics: SUMMARY Some local pharmacies have started to substitute the 1:10,000 epinephrine prefilled syringes with a kit containing: · a 30 mL vial (1mg/mL) of epinephrine · eight 10mL syringes · 10 mL vials of NS · a warning sticker · an instruction sticker advising you to...
Frequently Asked Questions
STROKE—What is new?
The American Heart Association has just published their newest Acute Ischemic Stroke (AIS) Guidelines. Highlights can be found here: http://professional.heart.org/idc/groups/ahamah-public/@wcm/@sop/@smd/documents/downloadable/ucm_498645.pdf Strokes are the second leading cause of death worldwide. The disabling effects and cost associated with stroke victims is staggering. While tPA is still the gold standard for ischemic...
Getting Supplies at the ED…
We are still having numerous issues with restocking supplies from the hospital vending machines. Please take a minute to see what the major issues continue to be: Stations/Fire are responsible to restock the nasal cannula end tidals. Hospitals only restock intubated versions. You can only restock what you truly...
Expiring Revive! kits
Question If you are checking off your ambulance and you notice that the naloxone (Narcan) in your Revive! kit has expired, what should you do? Answer Remove the expired Revive! kit from the ambulance and return it to your station officers. It has served its purpose and is no...
The Importance of Doing a Report
While doing some research for a little project, I discovered that EMR reports aren’t being completed. The project included looking at all of the helo crew and patient transfers between the VBGH pad and the hospital. Some of these cases had a crew out of service for over one...
Protected Health Information (PHI)
PHI is defined as any information collected from an individual that is: created or received by a health care provider, relates to the past, present, or future condition of an individual, and which can reasonably used to identify an individual. The following items are considered PHI. This list is...
What is Kratom?
A “new” substance is out there and you may run into someone using something called Kratom. It grows as an evergreen tree in the wild in Southeast Asia and is a member of the coffee family. The locals have been chewing the leaf or a powder to increase energy...
LVAD-What is it?
We have numerous patients with an LVAD (Left Ventricular Assist Device) that live in our city/region. More and more patients are receiving one as a bridge to transplant or destination therapy. As you can imagine, the bridge is temporary until they can get a heart transplant. For those that...
Quiet Please! Be Mindful of Patients, What You Say and Where You Say It.
Please be mindful of your conversations while in the ED’s. Many of our spaces have no privacy and share spaces or walls with patient rooms and beds. First, we can be quite loud and the patients are not feeling well. Talking softly makes it harder for them to hear...
Diabetic Patients with Low Blood Glucose-Should They Refuse?
There is no perfect yes/no answer to this question. Each patient and event has specific circumstances that will lead you to the best answer. Patients with low blood glucose (less than 60 mg/dL) require treatment of some sort. This might include food, orange juice, oral glucose, glucagon or dextrose. ...