Our regional guidelines require routine ALS on many of our calls. Routine ALS is defined as IV, 02, monitor. Recently the 02 has been modified to only 02 if patient is short of breath or has a SAT >94%. Now we are looking at the IV part. Do all these patients really need prehospital IVs? […]

Many of us in EMS love gadgets I remember when I started another EMT sold me a “whup kit,” which was a holster that attached to my belt to hold my tools. I didn’t get a big one, just a modest sized one. It held a pen light, trauma shears, bandage scissors, tweezers, and a […]

Yesterday the Connecticut Emergency Medical Services Medical Advisory Committee reversed its position from a year ago and voted to approve Intranasal Narcan as a sponsor hospital option for first responders and BLS services in the state. This does not mean that all first responders and BLS responders will be giving Narcan. It only means that […]

There was a recent editorial in the Hartford Courant, First Responders Could Help Cut Heroin Deaths, citing the rash of recent heroin deaths and calling for all first responders to be equipped with Narcan in order to stop the rise. Narcan is provided to first responders in some of our neighboring states, and the editorial […]

One of my favorite moments of the year is when the presentations given at the annual Gathering of Eagles conference are posted online. Here’s the link: Gathering of Eagles 2014 Presentations Among the topics dealt with are Ketamine, BLS Narcan, the LUCUS Device, Getting Rid of Long Back Boards, and my favorite each year, Dr. […]

There is a new TV comedy series on the USA Network called Sirens (Produced by Dennis Leary) whose main characters are EMTs/paramedics at a private ambulance company in Chicago. According to Entertainment Weekly, Sirens is one of the “12 best new shows” on TV. At the three minute mark of the first episode the crew […]