Dear Alaska EMS Provider,
Welcome to the second edition of
the Alaska EMS Vitals Newsletter. If this is the first time you have received it we hope that you find it
informative as we have developed this newsletter in an effort to keep you
apprised of local, state and federal EMS changes and will be sending it out
monthly. Please make sure to share it with your colleagues!
Sign up for the EMS
Vitals Newsletter today!
This month we welcome our new
Data Manager Brian Ritchie to the State EMS Office. He brings with him a wealth of knowledge and
experience, has a true passion for EMS, and appreciates what Alaska EMS
providers do every day for their communities. He will be based in Anchorage and work
collaboratively with our sections Trauma Registrar to provide better data to
the EMS system in order to facilitate our efforts in moving the EMS system forward
based on best practices, data driven decisions, and evidence based medicine.
We hope to see many of you at
the upcoming Hale Borealis Forum and Southern Region Symposium. Our Section Chief, Heidi Hedberg, and I will be having an
open forum question and answer session at the Southern Region Symposium, so
please plan on attending and bring your questions about the State EMS Office
and where we would like to head with your support!
Respectfully,
Todd McDowell, State Office EMS Manager
#AKEMSForwardTogether
Michael Levy M.D., State EMS Medical Director
Stroke
Strokes are among a small number
of time critical events that emphasize the importance of well-developed systems
of care as a fundamental element of best patient outcomes. The revitalized use
of tPa at thrombolysis-capable hospitals has been a major step in providing new
hope for a devastating condition. The ability of EMS to rapidly recognize
strokes and to provide early notification via “stroke alerts” can significantly
improve door-to-needle times which is highly correlated with positive patient outcomes.
A new era of stroke care is also emerging that is backed by a number of recent
studies that show severe strokes caused by the acute occlusion of a large
cerebral vessel can have complete recovery if endovascular thrombectomy is performed
within 24 hours after the onset of symptoms. The good news in Alaska is
that we are on the verge of having that capability on a 24x7x365 basis in at minimum
one Anchorage hospital. In the next few months we hope to provide
statewide training on an improved EMS stroke triage tool (BE FAST) as well as
training on a brief clinical exam that can demonstrate large vessel occlusion
symptoms. We hope that these tools will be of benefit across the state to help guide
decisions regarding the best initial destination and early use of medevac to
assist in achieving the best possible outcome for the patient.
EMS Governor's Awards
Thank you for all of your nominations! This years collection period is closed. The award recipients will be announced at the 43rd Annual Southern Region EMS Symposium.
Task Force Recruiting
The Governor’s Alaska Council of EMS received a number of applications from highly qualified individuals. Individuals selected to be on the Task Force will be notified in the next 30 days.
Training Committee
The Training Committee will host two upcoming meetings. The first meeting will be held September 19th. The call in number is 1-800-944-8766 and the participant code is 83001. The second meeting will an in-person meeting held October 16th-18th in Anchorage, Alaska at the Southern Region EMS Council facility. For more information please contact the Training Committee Chairperson, Anjela Johnston.
Upcoming ACEMS Meeting Information
October 5th, 9am Call In: 1-800-944-8766 Participation Code: 83001
Save the date for the following educational opportunities:
Hale Borealis Forum
October 23-25, Dena'ina Center, Anchorage
The Hale Borealis Forum is a three day conference that brings together
healthcare, EMS, emergency management, law enforcement, and other
critical stakeholders, with a focus on health and medical emergency
preparedness, response, and recovery. The multi-agency, collaborative
approach to health preparedness is reflected in this year’s theme:
“Strengthening Whole Community Partnerships to Improve Healthcare
Resiliency.” Hale Borealis Registration
NAEMSP Medical Directors Operations Course
October 26th, Frontier Building, Suite 100, Anchorage
This course will be tailored to address Alaska EMS practice
and have faculty on behalf of the National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP). This
course has been well-received nationwide and internationally. More details to follow.
Southern Region EMS Symposium
November 7-10, Egan Center, Anchorage
Pediatric Clinical & EMS Tracks, Resuscitation Academy, Lessons from Libya: Care Under Fire, Burn Care: Long term EMS & Clinical, and more. Southern Region EMS Symposium Registration
Resuscitation Academy
November 8, Egan Center, Anchorage
An intense one
day RA will be offered during the Southern Region EMS Symposium with
faculty from the Seattle RA associated with the
Global Resuscitation Alliance. Attendance will be limited so register soon!
Calling all Pediatric Instructors!
Alaska EMS is developing a list of pediatric instructors to provide resources and support. If you are a pediatric instructor please email the Alaska EMS Training Officer.
Pediatric Emergency Care Coordination
Alaska EMSC was interested in hearing about how pediatric emergency care is coordinated within your EMS agency and conducted a needs assessment in partnership with the National EMSC Data and Analysis Research Center (NEDARC) in late 2017. From this needs assessment, EMSC found that 26% of Alaska State Certified EMS agencies reported having a Pediatric Emergency Care Coordinator (PECC) who was responsible for coordinating one or more of the below list of activities for their agency (or for multiple agencies).
-
Ensures the pediatric perspective is included in the development of EMS protocols and that developed
pediatric clinical-practice guidelines and protocols are followed.
- Promotes pediatric continuing-education opportunities, agency participation in pediatric injury prevention programs, family centered care, and pediatric emergency care research efforts.
- Oversees the pediatric-process improvement.
- Ensures the availability of pediatric medications, equipment, and supplies.
- Interacts with the ED pediatric emergency care coordinator.
A designated PECC need not be dedicated solely to this role; it can be an individual already in place who assumes this role as part of their existing duties. For more information on Pediatric Care Coordination please contact Alaska EMSC at 907-465-5467 or email the Alaksa EMSC Program.
Child Passenger Safety Week, September 23rd-29th!
September is National Child
Passenger Safety Month, and the Alaska Child Passenger Safety (CPS) Coalition is
hosting car seat checkup events and certification courses in many areas of the
state. Please check out the Alaska CPS Coalition's event calendar for a list of statewide events coming up.
Car seats and booster seats
are confusing, which contributes to high rates of misuse (errors). A
Certified Child Passenger Safety Technician can assist caregivers to use their
children’s car seats correctly.
During calendar year
2017, members of the Alaska CPS Coalition reported 1,845 car seat
inspections. Only 301 of those inspections
revealed correctly installed car seats.
84% of car seats inspected
were found to have some form of misuse or were uninstalled upon arrival.
Many EMS agencies in
Alaska have Certified Car Seat Technicians on staff, and serve their
communities as car seat fitting stations. If you or your agency is
interested in offering car seat services to your community, please email Sara Penisten Turcic or call 907-212-3194.
The NHTSA Child Car Safety toolkit is also available for you to download to get information on how to generate awareness about child car safety.
Alaska EMS Certification Portal
Please visit the Certification Portal, Alaska’s online EMS certification system. The Certification Portal allows you to submit applications, check the status of your application, manage your certification, search for EMS personnel and search for upcoming EMS training courses.
For Ambulance Services Expiring December 31st of this Year.
Please allow adequate time for the recertification process. The application for service certification
and expanded scope, if applicable, will need to be submitted online through our
Certification Portal. Applicants
are required to submit a roster that includes all members and/or
employees of the ambulance service.
- ETTs, Nurses, Physicians, and/or other personnel will need to create an
account and fill out the RN/ Paramedic/ Other application and be added
to the service roster.
-
Administrative
staff, Medical Director, and Pediatric Emergency Care Coordinators (PECC) will also be required to be indicated on
the roster. Please see the EMSC section above for further information on PECC.
If you have any questions about the Ambulance Recertification or
Expanded Scope of Practice application process, please email the Certification Officer.
Deadlines
December 31- Ambulance Service and EMT 1 Recertification
March 31- EMT 2, EMT 3, and Instructor Recertification
Login to your account here to re-certify.
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AURORA Elite
The Alaska Uniform Response Online Reporting Access (AURORA) Elite, is the new state online reporting system for EMS providers. The State EMS Office uses this data for quality improvement initiatives throughout the state and uploads this data into the National EMS Information System (NEMSIS).
AURORA 2.0 users are currently transitioning to the AURORA Elite platform which yields NEMSIS 3.0 compliant data. If your agency is still using 2.0 please contact your regional data manager.
Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES)
The State EMS Office is excited to announce that we will begin reporting to CARES.
Out of hospital cardiac arrest is one of largest causes of
death in adults in Alaska. Nationwide
there is huge variability in the survival, ranging from less than 5% to over
20% for all rhythms and when the arrest is witnessed and the initial rhythm was
ventricular fibrillation, optimized systems have shown year after year 60% survival
with good neurological outcomes whereas lesser systems still have only single
digit success. Good systems have one
thing in common: they measure their systems and as they measure their systems
they improve because they use the metrics to address shortcomings. In other words, you can only manage what you
measure.
CARES (www.mycares.net) is currently one of
the few nationwide standard entry platforms to detail the events associated
with cardiac arrest starting with EMS dispatch information, followed by field
information and ultimately hospital care and patient’s neurological status at
discharge. The EMS information will soon
be able to be directly uploaded to the CARES network via Aurora Elite.
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