Pulsara Blog

While it’s essential that EMS providers stay on top of core clinical skills for the most critical calls, such as sudden cardiac arrest and airway management, it’s also important to keep up with the skills to address issues you may not see as often. From treating burns to managing pain in pediatric patients to responding to mental health calls, new information on best practices can help you hone your practice. 

In partnership with EMS1, Pulsara is releasing a free eBook collection of popular "10 Things You Need to Know" articles, with recent input from EMS professionals on subjects that can help improve clinical practice and save money for EMS organizations. 

GET THE GUIDE - Closing the Gaps: Plug Holes in Your Skillset and Cracks in Your Budget

2023 UPDATE: As reported by JEMS.com on 6/28/23, the federal government is ending the ET3 program. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, “This decision does not affect Model Participants’ participation in the Model through December 31, 2023.” Read the full article on JEMS for more details: ET3 Program Comes to an Abrupt End. Please be advised that Mobile Integrated Healthcare and Community Paramedicine are separate initiatives unaffected by the ET3 program termination.

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

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Here’s how your agency can use telehealth and community paramedicine to deliver more personalized care to patients

Community paramedicine, mobile integrated healthcare and ET3 are rapidly becoming hot topics in EMS as the profession evolves, especially as the long tail of the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbates issues like ambulance turnaround times.

As ambulance agencies worldwide struggle with long waits at the ED, it’s become even more vital to find solutions to issues like ED overcrowding and long wall times. Community paramedicine, MIH and ET3 possess the unique ability to reduce transports while simultaneously improving care for patients.

Here’s a look at 10 ways EMS agencies can use telehealth and community paramedicine to deliver high-quality care to patients, some of the advantages of implementing such strategies, and how the ET3 model supports this approach.

Mental health is a growing need around the world. Over 50 million people in the United States alone—1 in 5 adults—are dealing with mental health issues. And the trend extends to all ages; 1 in 6 young people in the U.S. between the ages of 6 and 17 struggle with mental health. Living through a global pandemic has only made matters worse. In May 2021, Children's Hospital Colorado declared a state of emergency for pediatric mental health. 

Over the past few years, Ute Pass Regional Health Service District in Teller County, Colorado, has set out to improve care for mental health patients. They built a top-tier community paramedicine program uniquely trained to respond to mental health calls. They also equipped their community paramedics with Pulsara, a healthcare communications, telehealth, and logistics platform. The result is a dynamic program that meets mental health patients where they are. 

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

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Community paramedics are pioneering new ways to care for mental health patients – here’s how

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, EMS providers have seen an alarming uptick in patients refusing to go to their doctor’s office or the emergency room. Many others – including those with urgent conditions – have even been hesitant to call 911.

“We saw patients who were just foregoing all of their medical care – they were ignoring their emergency conditions,” said James McLaughlin, director of the community paramedicine program at Ute Pass Regional Health Service District in Woodland Park, Colorado.

To ease his community’s fears, McLaughlin introduced a new Healthcare Options Mobility and Engagement, or HOME, program, which pairs an in-home paramedic visit with a telehealth consult by a physician – like Dr. Jeremy DeWall, EMS medical director at Ute Pass Regional Health Service District.

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

2020 was a year of pivots.

Movies being released on streaming services and Netflix rather than in theaters. Peloton and home virtual gym sales through the roof. Zoom & Microsoft Teams replacing the office board room. All of these are shining examples of our ability to use technology to adapt during the perilous times of COVID-19. With our need to remain connected while isolated, we saw everything from your cousin’s baby shower to your favorite artist’s concert taking place online.

So what was the answer that Pulsara, a company already based in healthcare communication and connection, had for the sudden need for flexibility that the global pandemic demanded?

Enter: Pulsara PATIENT. 

Becker's Hospital Review recently reported that as of April, 354 rural hospitals in the U.S. are still at a high risk of closing, unless their finances immediately improve. Those 354 hospitals account for almost exactly 25% of all 1,430 rural hospitals in the United States. Every state has at least one hospital with a high risk of closure, though, in states like Oklahoma, that number is as high as 28. 

As rural hospitals look for solutions, some are turning to technology to come up with new and innovative ways to find the funds to keep their doors open. Among the most surprising? Telehealth. 

Wow! Was 2020 a doozie or what? COVID-19 took a toll on our healthcare system, resources, economy, and the way we do business. We survived rolling epicenters of virus surge on a national scale. Needless to say, it’s been a chaotic year. 

This is part 5 of our blog series on the Top 5 Challenges in Rural Healthcare. Check out the other posts in this series here.

Rural healthcare has many strengths. With more continuity of care and personal relationships built between doctors and patients, rural clinicians have unique insight into the lives of their patients, helping them make the best possible treatment decisions for their patients. 

Recently, prominent rural healthcare authorities in Georgia and Colorado Springs sat down for exclusive interviews with Pulsara to weigh in on some of the challenges that rural clinicians are currently facing, the strengths of rural healthcare, and some of the innovative solutions they believe can help.

This is part 3 of our blog series on the Top 5 Challenges in Rural Healthcare. Check out the other posts in this series here.

For rural healthcare providers, delivering high quality care means facing unique challenges that don’t come up in most urban settings. Many of these issues have only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well. Access to care, distance, connectivity, and financial hardship are only a few of the hurdles rural health has had to grapple with. 

In the United States, rural healthcare serves one-quarter of the nation’s population. Over the last few decades, special rules and regulations were created with the aim to help rural residents get better access to care. However, some of these regulations have become counterproductive, doing more harm than good for rural patient care. 

This is part 2 of our blog series on the Top 5 Challenges in Rural Healthcare. Check out the other posts in this series here.

From access issues to finding funding, rural healthcare faces a variety of unique challenges. As COVID-19 swept the nation, many of these challenges have only intensified. Chief among these challenges is covering the high costs associated with continuing operations.  

Recently, prominent rural healthcare authorities in Georgia and Colorado Springs sat down for exclusive interviews with Pulsara to weigh in on these challenges, as well as some of the innovative solutions they believe can help. 

In this 5-part blog series, we will explore each of the top 5 challenges that rural healthcare currently faces, and how new technology could be key to solving some of them. Today, we'll discuss the second major challenge: Funding. 

Country backroads. Limited cell service. A population that is spread across great distances and often doesn’t have effective health insurance. For rural healthcare providers, delivering high quality care means facing unique challenges that don’t come up in most urban settings. 

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

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Preparation, vigilance and taking care of your mental health will be key strategies as we move forward

As 2021 begins, COVID-19 vaccines have recently been approved, and it appears that the beginning of the pandemic’s end is in sight. That said, we are still experiencing large spikes throughout the country, and hospitals and EMS systems are under immense strain.

We aren’t quite on the other side, but we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Here are 10 things we’ve learned from the pandemic that can help improve other areas of EMS response:

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.

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.

Finding A Next-Generation Telehealth Plan Of Action For Your Hospital [Part 3]

Editor's note: This is the third installment in our series on Finding the Next-Generation Telehealth Plan of Action for Your Hospital. Check out Part 1 and Part 2 here. 

Before COVID-19 sent shockwaves through the healthcare community, telehealth only comprised a very small percentage of appointments for most hospitals. Almost overnight, hospitals realized that they needed a reliable platform for evaluating patients from a distance. The pandemic set in motion a mad scramble for a workable solution, and many hospitals reached for the first option they could find. 

Earlier this year, in the weeks before COVID-19 changed life and healthcare as we know it, Latrobe Regional Hospital near Melbourne, Australia, was busy laying the groundwork for a new communication system between their hospital teams and Ambulance Victoria. Over the course of the next few months, Latrobe was able to implement Pulsara for treating patients across multiple departments, including stroke, mental health, pediatrics, trauma—and most pressingly, COVID-19. 

As lawmakers and physicians debate what to do about telehealth restrictions in the wake of COVID-19, a growing number of clinicians would like to see telehealth become a more regular part of patient care.

The motion to make telehealth permanent after the pandemic seems to be gaining momentum, both in Canada and the United States. Canadian physicians and researchers seem to agree that while it won’t solve everything, telehealth has the potential to help remedy a lot of problems in healthcare across the provinces.