Dear members and friends of KCRSA,
Last week I had the opportunity for a very interesting visit with Dr. Ryan Jacobsen. He is the Medical Director of the Johnson County EMS. I was intrigued to find out that this “Pre-ED” care is becoming a sub-specialty in emergency medicine. We may soon have a fellowship for it in Kansas City. But, let me tell you, your adrenaline just starts coursing with a tour of the communication center for JoCo and the 911 service for all medical calls and then a look-see through his personal response van with the flashing lights and all the gear and equipment stored in immediately accessible cubbies. It does something to you to see the Gigli saw and amputation saw right there for emergency amputation in the field to achieve extraction or the kit for emergency C-section.
But what most intrigued me was what EMS and “Pre-ED” has to tell us about our core responsibilities of teaching communications and protocols. It was very impressive to see the overlay of responders and supervisors at the 911 response circles and the scripted checklists that were reviewed with the caller and the EMS team sent out to the caller and the embedded protocols and dosing instructions, etc. available to EMS on all manner of devices. What would things be like, I wondered, if even a mini-version of that happened when a patient turns on a call light in the hospital?
But the reason I bring this up is that last month the Steering Committee (in our new bylaws, the Steering Committee essentially acts as our “Board”) accepted 2 new EMS to the Committee. As Todd Gehringer rotates off the Committee, we are pleased that we will continue to have EMS representation. Sincere thanks to Todd for the leadership role he has played the last few years.
And speaking of KCRSA, our Spring Meeting is June 7 at ZIEL at KU this year. Save the date. It’s coming up soon. We are 2 months now from IMSH (I saw several of you there at the River Walk) and also in June will be the INACSL meeting, this year in Phoenix. But I want to make sure you all save the date and spread the excitement for our Fall Symposium this year at JCCC on September 20. William McGaghie and Walter Eppich, will be keynote speakers. Northwestern University Medical Center; www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/sites/simulation is famous for its pioneering work in training to competency and use of simulation in healthcare training in general and they will be bringing an entire team for this event to tell us “how they do it.” Much of our earlier ability to tell administration that simulation actually did improve performance and save patient lives and lower healthcare costs came out of the studies from Northwestern. We are eager to hear what they will say. Again, save the date.
Happy spring to you all,
Zam