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3 min read

A Communication Breakdown That May Have Cost a Heart Patient His Life

By Shane Elmore, RN on Apr 28, 2016

mass_confusion.jpg

Topics: Stroke STEMI EMS Trauma Healthcare
1 min read

Pulsara Featured in Video Interview at EMS Today 2016 [Full Interview]

By Hannah Ostrem on Apr 05, 2016

Still wondering exactly how Pulsara works to coordinate care between EMS and the hospital care teams? Know how it works but wish you had a step-by-step video to forward to friends and connections? Just want to watch Clinical Specialist Brandon Means explain the ins and outs of Pulsara on repeat?

Well, you're in luck.

Topics: EMS Press
1 min read

Ambulance Diversions Result in Increased Deaths for Heart Attack Patients.

By Hannah Ostrem on Feb 25, 2016

We all know that when it comes to time sensitive emergencies, like stroke or STEMI, time is tissue. As such, it should come as no surprise that a recent study performed by the University of California-San Francisco and the National Bureau of Economic has found that among 30,000 heart attack patients, those who were transported by ambulances that were diverted from busy ERs to other, further away hospitals, were 10 percent more likely to be dead one year later. 

Topics: Stroke STEMI EMS
3 min read

Happy New Year! A Look at Pulsara's Most Read Content From 2015

By Hannah Ostrem on Dec 31, 2015

2015 has been an amazing year for Pulsara. We grew our incredible team, gained some amazing clients, helped several facilities finally acheive their desired D2N and D2B times, and pushed out some truly revolutionary features on our platform - all in the name of improving patient outcomes for time sensitive emergencies. 

To celebrate a successful year, we thought we'd reflect on Pulsara's 5 most popular blog posts from 2015. Some were funny, others serious, but all were educational. Take a look for yourself!

Topics: Stroke STEMI EMS Leadership Healthcare
2 min read

Former Pulsara User Discusses The Platform and Why He Became an Employee [Podcast/Video]

By Hannah Ostrem on Dec 18, 2015

 

Perhaps the best testimonial a company like Pulsara could hope for, is one where someone is in a job they love so much that they say they will retire from that job - only to be so touched by our potential to impact lives on such a large scale that they feel compelled to come work for us instead. 

Brandon Means is a paramedic and RN who loves saving lives and helping sick patients above all else. In his past role, he was also a customer of Pulsara. After noting the effect the company had on door-to-needle and door-to balloon times, Brandon realized the opportunity to impact lives on such a broad scale was a chance he could not turn down and became one of our Clinical Specialists. The rest, as they say, is history. 

Recently, Brandon was chosen by Sam Bradley, host of the Disaster Podcast, to be featured on an episode of The MedicCast. The episode was cast live from the PhysioControl Studios on the floor of the EMS World Expo earlier this fall, after Sam saw a demo of Pulsara. 

Topics: Stroke STEMI EMS Press
1 min read

Survey: Most Healthcare Messaging Systems NOT HIPAA Compliant

By Hannah Ostrem on Dec 03, 2015

 

A recent survey conducted by Infinite Convergence Solutions shows that the majority of healthcare institutions in the United States are using messaging apps and services that do not meet enterprise-grade standards for HIPAA and security regulations.


According to FierceMobileHealthcare, Infinite Convergence's CEO, Anurag Lal, said "CIOs and IT leaders in healthcare institutions need to make available an official ... messaging platform to their employees which also allows them to implement administrative, physical and technical safeguards that HIPAA requires." 

Topics: Stroke STEMI EMS Coordinators' Corner Healthcare
1 min read

Pulsara's Care Coordination Featured on 'The Disaster Podcast' [Listen Here]

By Hannah Ostrem on Dec 01, 2015

 

If your wife wanted you to pick up some milk on your way home, would she send you a fax or a page? Would she have her assistant call your answering service who will then let you know that you need to call her to tell you she needs some milk? 

Sounds ridiculous, right? In reality, your wife will simply text you. In 2 seconds, she can relay the simple message to you, you get it in real time, and can quickly type back "got it." It's simple, fast, effective communication that just makes sense. 

Unfortunately, when lives are on the line, we are still doing communications in the backwards, roundabout, convoluted way described in the first paragraph of this post and by Pulsara's CEO Dr. James Woodson in The Disaster Podcast's latest episode. 

Topics: Stroke STEMI EMS Coordinators' Corner Press
2 min read

It's Time to "Let Doctors be Doctors" [Video]

By Hannah Ostrem on Nov 03, 2015

 

Dr. Zubin Damania is a physician who, like many of his peers, felt trapped in a system that was dictating every aspect of his caregiving for him - forcing him to spend the majority of his time on reporting and data entry rather than with patients.

As an activist and advocate for better healthcare that fits with the pace of the modern world, Dr. Damania has devoted his spare time to breaking down barriers doctors face that prevent them from providing optimal care through his entertaining, creative, and genius parody music videos. When he's not being "ZDoggMD," Dr. Damania is transforming the traditional healthcare experience into one that is focused on the patient, rather than on bureaucracy.

Topics: Stroke STEMI EMS
2 min read

Pulsara Chosen Among Top Innovators to Receive 2015 EMS World Innovation Award [Press Release]

By Team Pulsara on Oct 08, 2015

 

Pulsara has been awarded the EMS Top Innovation Award, as announced at the September 2015 EMS World Expo in Las Vegas. This award is presented to the most innovative products of the year, as judged by a panel from the EMS World Expo Faculty and EMS World Editorial Advisory Board.

Pulsara is a platform that performs like an app to coordinate and simplify the care process for STEMI and stroke. The Pulsara story starts at a dinner party in late 2011, when a group of dedicated medical professionals who were part of Leading Edge Medical Associates (LEMA) came together to discuss a challenge: “How can we improve patient care in our facilities? How can we help our healthcare system pursue value based healthcare – providing improved quality of care at a lower cost?”

Topics: Stroke STEMI EMS Press
5 min read

Traumatic Brain Injury: 10 Things You Need to Know to Save Lives

By Kris Kaull on Sep 18, 2015

EDITOR'S NOTE: Special thanks to our guest blogger, Bob Sullivan. Bob Sullivan, MS, NRP, is a paramedic instructor at Delaware Technical Community College. He has been in EMS since 1999, and has worked as a paramedic in private, fire-based, volunteer, and municipal EMS services, and is an ally to Pulsara.

1. There's little room to spare in the cranium.

Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) can cause inflammation and swelling or bleeding from damage to brain tissue and blood vessels. Bleeding may occur within the brain (an intracranial hemorrhage) or the protective layers that surround it, such as an epidural, subdural or subarachnoid hemorrhage.
Topics: EMS
3 min read

5 Ways Mobile Healthcare Coordination Can Change EMS

By Kris Kaull on Sep 15, 2015

 

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was originally pubilshed on EMS1.com. EMS1 serves as the largest site for paramedics and EMTs to find expert industry-relevant content.

Medical professionals are always pushing to discover better methods to improve patient outcomes. Nowhere is this more true than in acute care situations, where communication is critical and every second counts.  

But up until now, there hasn’t been a great one-size-fits-all solution to the problem of sharing information—benchmark times, patient information, etc.—between emergency response team members, due to great variation from place to place and organization to organization.

One company looked for a way to put a method to the madness. By pulling together people, alerts, and information in a single platform that’s available to everyone, the days of “who knew what when” can be put firmly in the past.

Here’s how Pulsara works, along with five reasons it is quickly becoming the leading technology for improving patient outcomes.

Topics: EMS
3 min read

HOW TO: Engage EMS in Your Hospital Meetings ... and Beyond!

By Shane Elmore, RN on Sep 08, 2015

 

It was my first day in my new role as the STEMI/Chest Pain Coordinator. Because this position had been vacant for a year, the To Do list was daunting to say the least. As I attended my first meeting, I noticed that the EMS personnel in attendance was completely disengaged. I’m sure if I called him out on it he would have claimed that he was taking notes. In reality, he was probably playing Angry Birds or Words With Friends. I didn’t blame him. We weren’t a cohesive team and it showed.

The meeting was uneventful. Afterwards, my new boss said something to the effect that EMS is always disengaged and “Good luck with that!” I needed the EMS team to be on my side in order to build a successful program.

Fast forward 30 days.

Topics: EMS
2 min read

Confessions of a Recovering Paramedic

By Wes Wood on Aug 27, 2015

 

Recently a coworker here at Pulsara (not mentioning any names, but thanks Kris Kaull) paid me what is probably the best compliment I’ve ever received … he called me a recovering paramedic. I didn’t know how to take it at first, but then I realized, he’s right. I guess he’s seen the signs and symptoms before.

You see, it all started just like so many others, my dream job as a teen was being a paramedic. After a couple years in college, I achieved that goal and began what was at that point, my life’s work, and I loved it right up to the very last shift.

Topics: EMS
3 min read

Why Does 911 Send a Fire Truck to a Medical Call?

By Team Pulsara on Aug 06, 2015

EDITOR'S NOTE: Special thanks to Jeffrey Hobson for writing today's blog post. You can connect with him on LinkedIn. 


This seems to be one of the most common questions people ask firefighters and paramedics.

Imagine the following scenario: 

You call 911 for your neighbor who’s having chest pain. Within a few moments, a big fire engine shows up with your community’s beloved uniformed firefighters. Your friends and fellow neighbors take notice right away and ask, “Why can’t they just send an ambulance? Do they need to waste all that money sending a big truck to a simple medical incident? Can a firefighter really help me right now?” 

Topics: EMS
1 min read

The Changing Face of Stroke Care: Is There an App for That?

By Hannah Ostrem on May 26, 2015

 

...You know there is! EMS World recently published an article which highlights the changing technologies and protocols for managing stroke care. New embolectomy studies such as MR. CLEAN, ESCAPE, EXTEND IA, SWIFT-PRIME, and REVASCAT (see Pulsara's previous post for more details) have shown incredible promise in that patients who recieved the various embolectomy treatments were roughly twice as likely to experience a positive outcome compared to those patients who received IV tPA alone. In fact, all of these studies were stopped early due to efficacy. 

Topics: Stroke EMS
2 min read

EMTs and Paramedics: Happy EMS Week and Thank You for Your Service!

By Brittany Means, RN, BSN on May 19, 2015

 

Whether it be as a visitor of a dear friend after surgery, for the birth of the newest family member, or as the patient yourself, there are few of us who haven’t found ourselves in the hospital setting. On the other hand, a much smaller percentage of the population has had a front row seat to the care that takes place prehospital. Even as a nurse in the hospital, I had little to no contact with these everyday heroes, and therefore knew very little about the immense role that they play in patient care. It wasn’t until I met my husband, a flight paramedic, that my eyes were opened to the world of EMS.

Topics: EMS
5 min read

Trauma: 10 Things You Need to Know to Save Lives

By Kris Kaull on Apr 16, 2015

 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Special thanks to our guest blogger, Bob Sullivan. Bob Sullivan, MS, NRP, is a paramedic instructor at Delaware Technical Community College. He has been in EMS since 1999, and has worked as a paramedic in private, fire-based, volunteer, and municipal EMS services, and is an ally to Pulsara. Contact info for Bob can be found on his blog, The EMS Patient Perspective.

 Enjoy!

~ Kris

Trauma is a leading cause of death for all age groups. EMS plays a pivotal role in trauma systems of care through assessment, treatment, and transport to the most appropriate trauma-care facility. Here are the top 10 things you need to know about multi-system trauma to save lives:

Topics: EMS
4 min read

STEMI: 10 Things You Need to Know to Save Lives

By Kris Kaull on Mar 19, 2015

EDITOR'S NOTE: Special thanks to our guest blogger, Bob Sullivan. Bob Sullivan, MS, NRP, is a paramedic instructor at Delaware Technical Community College. He has been in EMS since 1999, and has worked as a paramedic in private, fire-based, volunteer, and municipal EMS services, and is an ally to Pulsara. Contact Bob at his blog, The EMS Patient Perspective.

 Enjoy!

~ Kris

 

EMTs and paramedics play a crucial role in rapid detection, treatment, and transport of STEMI1 patients to the most appropriate hospital. Here are the top 10 things you need to know about STEMI to save lives:

Topics: STEMI EMS
2 min read

FaceTime: The Answer to Cost-Effective Prehospital Telestroke?

By James Woodson, MD on Mar 03, 2015

 

We all know that “time is tissue” for our stroke patients. We now have four studies (Mr Clean, Escape, Extend-1A, and Swift-Prime) showing the tremendous benefits of endovascular therapy for patients with large vessel occlusion (LVO).

Topics: Stroke EMS Coordinators' Corner
2 min read

Standardized Communication to Improve Inpatient STEMI Treatment Time Outcomes

By Hannah Ostrem on Feb 24, 2015

Approximately 200,000 people in the United States will suffer a STEMI this year, and, according to a recently published article in the Wall Street Journal, roughly 5% of those cases will occur in patients who are already in the hospital for other unrelated ailments. (Read 'The Hospital is no Place for a Heart Attack' here). 
Topics: STEMI EMS Coordinators' Corner