Pulsara Blog

For a long time, traumatic stress and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder have been conditions associated with those that have experienced combat or been in the military. Recently, there has been mounting evidence that first responders are also experiencing these conditions at alarming rates, and that we need to make our own mental health a priority.

For a long time mental health, self-care, and peer-care have been taboo subjects among first responders. Thankfully, that is beginning to change, and discussion of these topics has been encouraged. Knowing more about first responder mental health can help you participate in the conversation, help yourself, and help your peers.

EMS plays a critical role in identifying, treating, and directing stroke patients into a system of care. Time is brain for stroke patients, and as the first on-scene, your response time is critical to quickly identifying stroke symptoms, alerting the right care teams, and getting the patient the care they need. Every minute you can shave off their treatment time saves tissue and makes a big difference to the patient's quality of life. 

With those things in mind, here are 10 things you need to know about stroke:

During time-sensitive emergencies, sharing data between EMS and the hospital is a vital part of patient care. EMS contacts the hospital via radio report to share information about the patient’s condition and vital signs, letting hospital staff know what to expect when the patient arrives on their doorstep. EMS and the hospital both comply with HIPAA guidelines, and sharing details about the patient’s condition is simply considered an essential part of providing the best possible care for that patient.

But once the patient has been admitted and EMS needs outcome data from the hospital, suddenly the information sharing process isn’t quite as clear. Many hospitals get nervous about the thought of sharing patient data or PHI with EMS agencies.

Why?

HIPAA.

Picture this:

About 12 hours into your 24-hour shift, you and your partner are finally sitting down to your first real meal of the day.

Just as the first bite of warm food hits your lips, the tones drop—an all-too-familiar scenario in the world of first responders. 

You’re dispatched to a 51-year-old male reporting chest pain. You walk in the door to a very distraught family, gathered around a man clutching his chest. He is pale and sweating profusely. You meet your partner’s eyes, and you know you’re both thinking the same thing. You quickly obtain the ECG and your suspicions are confirmed: tombstones in leads II, III, and AVF.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article originally appeared on EMS1.com. Special thanks to our guest author, Rachel Zoch, for EMS1 BrandFocus. 

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Be sure to include ample space for sleep, fitness and other critical activities whether you are making improvements or building a new facility

An EMS station needs to provide the comforts of home as well as the tools for work, from restful sleeping quarters to office space and equipment storage. Energy efficiency and safety should also be top of mind, whether you are making improvements to your current station or building a new facility.

To find out more about the elements needed for a modern station, EMS1 spoke with Austin-Travis County (Texas) EMS Chief Ernesto Rodriguez, who recently oversaw the design and construction of a new EMS station for his agency.

In time-sensitive emergencies, time is tissue. Every minute makes the difference in your patient's outcome, for better or worse. 

That's why UCHealth and AMR - Colorado Springs / El Paso County partnered with Pulsara, a healthcare communication and telehealth platform, to save time when patient outcomes are on the line. Pulsara creates a secure, unified patient channel—replaces multiple phone calls, radio reports, faxes, and pagers—and allows care teams to communicate efficiently and effectively when treating patients.

In this live-action retelling of a true story, watch how AMR and UCHealth use Pulsara to streamline and speed their communication processes throughout the patient's journey, making sure that every member of the care team is in the know, when they need to know—from dispatch answering the 911 call, to the hospital staff closing the case after the patient’s treatment is complete.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article originally appeared on EMS1.com. Special thanks to our guest author, Sarah Calams of EMS1 BrandFocus. 

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Telehealth applications can help expand the reach of out-of-hospital care to save more lives

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare and EMS providers have found themselves relying on technology more than ever before.

Summer blockbusters may have been cancelled, but this year, we've gotten to see what it truly means to be a superhero. 

As the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the world, doctors, nurses, paramedics, and emergency responders of every kind stepped up to take care of others. They’ve chosen to be there for us in our hour of need, sacrificing their own health, safety, and even the ability to go home to be with their families at the end of long, scary, and difficult shifts. That’s the true definition of heroism. 

To celebrate these healthcare heroes, Marvel Comics partnered with Allegheny Health Network (AHN) in Pennsylvania to help tell the stories of these real-life heroes. 

EDITOR'S NOTE:This article originally appeared on EMS1.com. Special thanks to our guest author, Michael Fraley of EMS1 BrandFocus. 

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Take control of the situation and establish command as soon as possible to start triaging and transporting patients

Much has been written over the years about responding to and managing “The Big One.” The list of all the articles and books about mass casualty incident management is a long one.

Every year, we conduct tabletop drills and full-scale exercises, tearing apart retired school buses and carrying high school drama students from the “scene” and around the block to the EMS station, where they are thanked with a free lunch.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article originally appeared on EMS1.com. Special thanks to our guest author, Sarah Calams of EMS1 BrandFocus. 

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Telehealth applications can help expand the reach of out-of-hospital care to help EMS and hospital providers deliver better patient care, faster

With today’s advanced technology, anyone can use their smartphone, tablet, or computer to connect via real-time video to talk with anyone around the world.

Yet, in the healthcare system, video streaming has remained static, convoluted, and complicated.

Emergency Medical Services—EMS, for short—is a branch of healthcare, public health, and public safety that responds to calls for help, 24/7, in almost every community in our nation. EMS encompasses a number of different services and roles, providing vital lifesaving care for patients during times of emergency. There are around 1.05 million licensed EMS professionals across the U.S. and nearly 623,000 of these are EMTs, while over 268,000 are paramedics. 

EDITOR'S NOTE:This article originally appeared on EMS1.com. Special thanks to our guest author, Michael Fraley of EMS1 BrandFocus. 

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It is probably safe to say that as long as humans have been sharing space with each other, there has always been some level of conflict. Struggles between coworkers can come from competition, innovation or a desire for improvement. Handled incorrectly, though, that conflict can also lead to inefficiencies, stagnation and harm to all parties involved.

It's been a big year for large-scale emergencies. Hurricanes, floods, wildfires, a pandemic — and responding to all these disaster scenarios involves a great deal of preparation, practice, and planning. 

Recently, a panel of industry leaders and experts in EMS and emergency preparedness (including Pulsara's own CMO, Kris Kaull) got together for an exclusive fireside chat-symposium, hosted by HERE Technologies. The group talked about overcoming the obstacles of disaster preparedness and mitigation and how to build a culture of preparedness and cross-agency collaboration. As they discussed disaster mitigation for large scale public safety scenarios, they also touched on some of the latest technology that's helping to improve scenario planning. 

Read on for the top 6 takeaways, or watch the full webinar below.

The Passion of a Serial Entrepreneur: To-Do Lists, Coaching, and Spilled Coffee

Pulsara CMO Kris Kaull recently had the exclusive opportunity to sit down with Brett Lyle, strategist, creator, and founder/coach at Brett Lyle Coaching and the Emergent Leadership YouTube channel. Kris and Brett discuss tangible practices that define and reshape mindsets, talk daily to-do lists, and lifelong goals and accomplishments. Kris also shares the tools he has used to overcome entrepreneurial challenges and explains how he intentionally designed his clinical career to be both personally fulfilling and professionally valuable to the industry. 

Special thanks and shout out to Brett for this awesome interview and opportunity! (To see more of Brett's work, follow her on social, or to contact her, see her links at the end of this post).  

Watch the exclusive interview in the video below, or read on for the full conversation.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Special thanks to Jessie Senini for writing today's blog post. You can connect with her on LinkedIn. 

TRAUMA: Radio Report

A One-Act Play by Jessie Senini

Unit 3245 has responded to a motorcycle accident with two injured persons in the dead of night on a suburban road. Patient One is unresponsive, while Patient Two is alert but with severe injuries. Both are critical. With the update information from the bystander, dispatch is also calling out a second unit for the other patient, and fire is already responding to the scene. The location does not meet criteria for a helicopter (the ground units will be faster) and everyone is lights and sirens to get there.

Special thanks to our guest author, Asbel Montes, for contributing today's blog. Asbel is the Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Acadian Ambulance Service. You can read more about him in his bio below.

One of the most important aspects in leadership is being able to recognize the power of your words. Just as important, however, is the ability to recognize the power of your silence. 

As hospitals and EMS agencies in Colorado Springs, Colorado, watched organizations around the world respond to COVID-19, they began to anticipate what their own response would look like. “We got to watch what happened in Italy and Europe and then subsequently in New York,” said Dr. Matt Angelidis, the co-medical director for the Colorado Springs Fire Department and AMR, and emergency physician for UC Health at Memorial Central, Memorial North, and Pike's Peak Regional Hospital. “We had time to think about, ‘Is there a better answer, or do we have an alternate way that we can take care of these patients and deliver care?’”

As the world buckled under the weight of COVID-19, emergency protocols were put in place to protect as many people as possible from exposure to the virus. Many of these protocols successfully achieved what they were designed to do. However, there were also many ways in which we didn’t yet fully understand the impacts of our pandemic response protocols.

Australian EMS agency Ambulance Victoria has recently released new research on the specific causes behind one such unintended consequence: increased deaths from sudden cardiac arrest.

A contest.

An adoring niece.

And, a humble EMT.

Put them together, and you get one beautiful story.

As the COVID-19 pandemic raged into June, essential workers continued to put their lives on the line each day to take care of others. The American Girl Company wanted to highlight their service. A request went out asking for nominations of friends or family members who were putting their own health at risk to step up to serve others in the midst of the pandemic, calling it the Heroes with Heart contest. At the end of August, American Girl announced the five grand prize winners. 

Among those five winners was April O’Quinn, an EMT for Richmond Ambulance Authority.