Pulsara Blog

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article originally appeared on EMS1.com. Special thanks to our guest author, David Wright, MS, PA-C, NREMT-P, for EMS1 BrandFocus. 

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The most important initial care step is to stop the burning process, but it’s also critical to know how to identify the type of burn and estimate the total area affected to help select the most appropriate destination for the patient

You and your partner are responding to a 911 call. Dispatch informs you that your patient suffered a burn. There is no additional information available at this time because the caller is quite panicked.

Your mind starts to race – maybe it’s a child who pulled a hot pot of noodles on top of themselves, maybe it’s a teenager playing with gasoline, maybe it’s a firefighter who was battling a fire, maybe it’s a grandparent who fell on a space heater.

No matter the situation you find when you arrive on scene, there are a few basic principles that apply to all burn patients. Here are 10 things EMS providers need to know to better assess and treat burns.

Make a plan for treating pediatric pain that includes managing unfamiliarity and stress in both the patient and their parents or caregivers

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

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The most complete definition of pain is “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage” (IASP). It is a highly complex and subjective condition in any patient.

With pediatrics, this complexity is intensified by the fact that paramedics don’t encounter pediatric patients as frequently, creating more unfamiliarity and stress. Challenges related to paramedic training and exposure to pediatrics often lead to myths and misconceptions. Here are 10 important things every provider should know about managing pain in children.

In time-sensitive emergencies, it’s easy to see how each passing minute impacts a patient’s outcome, for better or worse. The faster a patient receives treatment, the better chances they have at a good outcome. When you’re performing a time-sensitive intervention for a stroke or trauma patient, you know that every minute matters. 

But what happens after the patient is admitted to the hospital? What about the minutes slipping past that aren’t quite as noticeable: the time while a patient recovers, waiting to be discharged? 

How does the length of a patient’s stay in the hospital impact their outcome?

Every year, The Joint Commission consults with industry experts and stakeholders to gather information about emergent issues in patient safety and care. From their findings, they release an annual report of their National Patient Safety Goals, tailored specifically for programs like Ambulatory Care, Hospitals, and Nursing Care Centers. According to the Joint Commission, these goals inform their "sentinel event alerts, standards and survey processes, performance measures, educational materials, and Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare projects."

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

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Learning to be our best

PULSARA'S HASHTAG:

#ItsAboutPeople

PULSARA'S MISSION:

We unite and empower people to improve health by simplifying care coordination.

Said another way...

The Pulsara Team places control back into the hands of clinicians and patients to create better outcomes.

Healthcare is complex. We make it simpler.

PULSARA VALUES

But more than that, we care about people. Our value of Servant Leadership means that we love people. We passionately serve people and the people who serve people. Our success is measured by the success of those we serve.

To begin to understand the rates at which minorities are disproportionately disadvantaged in the healthcare system, we as caregivers need to examine our implicit ethnic bias. Implicit social cognition, AKA implicit bias, is taking stereotypes (cultural conditioning) and applying them to our everyday thoughts, actions, activities, and practices.

Implementing a medication administration cross check helped St. Charles County Ambulance District reduce dosing errors and win recognition for its Just Culture.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article originally appeared on EMS1.com and was authored by John Romeo, deputy chief medical officer, St. Charles County Ambulance District.

In April, the Center for Patient Safety awarded St. Charles County Ambulance District with the EMS Patient Safety First Award. The Center for Patient Safety cited SCCAD’s establishment of a Peer Review Committee, development of a safety plan involving all staff, and the adoption of a Just Culture as rationale for the selection. The group also lauded the implementation of the medication administration cross check as a measure to reduce dosing errors.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Combination of Pulsara and RAPID expands window of opportunity for treatment 

BOZEMAN, MT – September 27, 2019 – Miami Valley Hospital is the first site in the world to use the combination of a specific software application and mobile platform to enhance the treatment used to preserve a patient’s neurological function after a stroke.

While many hospitals use both applications – Pulsara and RAPID – in their stroke care, none have taken the step to combine their capabilities into one, said John Terry, MD, director of inpatient stroke care at Miami Valley Hospital.

Pulsara, a mobile platform, was developed by physicians to improve coordination and communication essential for stroke patient assessment. RAPID is a global leader in advanced imaging.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Special thanks to our guest blogger, Lee Varner. Lee is the Director of the Center for Patient Safety, and has over 20 years of experience in transformational leadership and patient safety to provide consultation and educational services for improving performance effectiveness, quality initiatives, healthcare best practices, culture training and patient safety strategies. 

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Recently, I was part of a conversation with a group of EMS leaders who were talking about clinical errors. They discussed the different types of clinical errors that they have seen and which ones kept them up at night. A few offered examples where a medication error or airway event harmed patient.   

I was happy to hear that everyone realized that most adverse events were usually part of system failure and not just caused by a reckless EMT or paramedic. Furthermore, everyone agreed that EMS clinicians are competent, compassionate, and dedicated people who don’t show up for duty expecting to harm a patient. But when harm does reach a patient, it affects everyone: the patient, family, the EMT or paramedic, and the entire agency. There was no disagreement that harm from medical errors was affecting everyone involved, but the nagging question was, how to reduce those errors? 

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

It’s almost a guarantee these days …

As I aimlessly wander around a store checking window shopping for things I don’t need, I overhear other people around me uttering under their breath, “Does this spark joy?”

Now if you have no idea where that expression comes from, then you need to get yourself caught up on the Art of KonMari AKA the Tidying Up craze that is sweeping the world!

For someone as obsessively tidy and clean as myself, seeing others discover the oh-so-lovely principles of a decluttered life … well it’s like finally getting to scratch an unbelievable itch. Marie Kondo — an organizing guru — has worked her way into the homes of millions of people, sparking a wave of organizing and decluttering that is literally changing people's lives.

And I love it! (As do a number of our own OCD Pulsara team members. Check our our CMO’s sock and t-shirt drawers!) 

So what on Earth does this have to do with Pulsara?  

EDITOR'S NOTE: Thanks to our guest blogger this week, Rommie L. Duckworth, BS, LP. Rom is a dedicated emergency responder and award-winning educator with more than twenty-five years of experience working in career and volunteer fire departments, hospital health care systems, and public and private emergency services. Currently a career fire captain and paramedic EMS coordinator, Rom is an emergency services advocate, and contributor to research, magazines and textbooks on topics of leadership, emergency operations, and educational methodology. Rom is a frequent speaker at conferences and symposia around the world and can be reached via RescueDigest.com.

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