Vermont Emergency Medical Services

District #3 WebPage 

District Board Minutes

VTEMSD#3 Board Meeting minutes for April 12, 2007.

Meeting called to order at 1915 by Vice-chair Lindquist in the Davis Auditorium of FAHC.

INTRODUCTIONS (Soons) 

• All in attendance were identified by name and service affiliation.

DISTRICT #3 GOALS DISCUSSION (Soons) 

• A review of the 2004 goals document was conducted.  Information regarding recent contact with four consultants who provide EMS systems assessments was discussed.  Dr. Steve Leffler, Director of the Emergency Department, voiced his support of Dr. Wendy James efforts to expand the level of care in VTEMSD#3 to include paramedicine.

 APPROVAL OF MINUTES (Lindquist) 

• Motion to approve the minutes for March 8, 2007 (Baron/Jones).  Motion approved.

CORRESPONDENCE (Lindquist) 

• From Karen Danaher, President of Essex Rescue, Inc.: notification of change in Board representative – now Craig Butkus (rec’d 3/8).

TREASURY (Danaher) 

• Motion to accept the Treasurer’s Report (Cashatt/Jones).  Motion approved.

MEDICAL DIRECTION (James) 

• HeART Foundation – Purchasing units this week, just waiting for last donors.  Plan: train the trainer session, then bring vendor trainers to individual services for membership training, run for one month beta.  We will include pulse ox training as well.  (Jones) Date?  (James) Whenever the units are received.  (Butkus) This is not a trade in.  (James) No, they are new machines.  If your service needs a municipal gift receipt, let me know.  (Putnam) How many units will be distributed?  (James) Each service will receive one, with the exception of BFD because they run two trucks as primary.  Round 2 may be more fundraising with services participating.  (Brent) Are the units equipped with blue tooth technology? (James) Yes.  (Lindquist) That is part of the E-series. (James) Will confirm.
• QA/QI
  • Case reviews will begin next month, starting off with a trauma case.  Time/date to be announced.
  • DNR POLST form is now active; but older forms are still out there. It will take time to get all patients records updated.  Meanwhile, if services are presented with a DNR order, contact Online Medical Direction as usual.
  • AED programming update – see Gil’s report
  • Cancellation form – use cancellation form, excellent tool for terminating a call i.e. – with or without online medical direction.
    • (James) Per VTEMS – service forms should contain the same elements or better.  (Dr. Ray Keller) I’m hearing from folks in the field asking me to decide whether or not to transport.  Some more than others.  Canceling is a huge liability.  (Putnam) The State cancellation form requires that online medical direction be consulted under certain conditions.  (James) EMS is required to call into medical direction.  (R. Keller) Services want me to tell them that they don’t have to transport.  (James) The form is your friend -  use it or something even stricter.  Decision may be made on the form.  (Conti) Could we get the cancellation forms to the ED attendings so that they would know why we are calling?  (James) Good idea.  (Cross) What about the one patient who calls frequently and with a significant health history, but does not require transport.  (James) The ED develops individual care plans for these patients, as well as psych frequent callers – representatives from the ED, primary care, and social services develop a plan.  (Brent) We ramp up to use the new form, and the State ramps down for the electronic medical record. 
  • Fingersticks – Dr. James is working to gather other district medical advisors to share information and discuss common issues.
  • SpCO detector – Putnam has information and will supply Dr. James.
• Questions/issues for District Medical Advisor
  • (Rice) Pulse ox to basic – roll out to 1^st response services?  (James) Next month.

FAHC (Helmken)

• AED reprogram – problem that is getting larger by the minute.  TSP resource Neal Haskell leading. Donating time & service to help us.  Needs information on models in order to work.  Some can be reprogrammed, some cannot.  Shock boxes contain chips – cannot update them.  The electricity is not the same on each machine, so this poses a challenge.  Changing the prompts also presents a challenge.  The software needed to update the Zoll-M series is $200.  TSP is willing to purchase this – so we need the info.  (James)  Need to get on this.  Free – way cool.  Sept 1 – those that can be reprogrammed will be.  Machines that can’t – tolerate their existence.  When one exists – look ahead to replace.  They worked last week.  Not going to tell folks to buy a new one.  Replace when you can.  Think about the logistics of coverage when servicing units.  Are there any extras in the District that could be loaned?   (Helmken) Neal may come to you – super nice, eh?  Need data.  Kij is collecting data.  (James) if you change your own, please have it checked for confirmation.  Need redundant confirmation.

TRAINING (Malone)

• Course Updates:
  • FR-ECA Vergennes:  Just starting to get applications
  • FR-ECA Underhill:  Lost a few folks; will f/u with them.  Still going well.
  • Modules: No report
  • EMT-B twice weekly:  Going well, help your students with their skill sheets (due 4/28).  Request for exams circulated.
  • EMT-B once weekly:  Going well – same as above.
  • EMT-I:  Began Tuesday 4/3/07, filled with 16 students.  I apologize for the about confusion, dates.  There have been some changes since the course was approved last May ’06 – especially the days of instruction.  State exam is June 28^th.
  • EMT-B summer:  Full with wait list.  Let me know if someone will not be taking the course.  Begins Friday 5/11 and meets every other weekend thereafter:  FRI 1700-2100, SAT 0800-1700, SUN 0800-1700.
• Course Proposals:  None.
• Upcoming Training Opportunities:
  • Certification practical exam Saturday May 5^th at Rowell.
  • Recertification: go out of District or wait until 6/28 – clean up. (Putnam) Confirm with State, someone was told that there would not be an opportunity for recert on that date.
• Other:

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (Lindquist) 

• No meeting tonight

• MCI:  Not discussed.
• Code 3 – data available tonight, guideline recommendation under development, good foundation underway.
• Grants:  None discussed.

ADMINISTRATION (Soons) 

·         1^st Quarter ALS reports due tonight.

·         Need to consider moving the District website soon.  (Malone) The University may be able to host the District website.

 PUBLIC INFORMATION (Lindquist) 

• http:/www.acep.org/webportal/Advocacy/EMS/Week/default.html

OLD BUSINESS (Lindquist) 

• EMS System Assessment discussed at outset.

NEW BUSINESS (Lindquist) 

• (Lindquist) Request for District to provide funds to purchase DVD of guest presentation in February reviewing the MCI in NY with the Greyhound bus.  Total for services requesting = $54.  Motion to approve purchase of DVDs for $54 (Jones/Brent).  Motion approved.
• Nominating Committee:
  • Seth Lasker (BFD),  Jim Laskarzewski (VTANG FD),  Mike Akerlind (Colchester) found the following interests:
    • Chair – Craig Butkus & Seth Lasker
      • Paper ballot – Seth Lasker prevails.
    • Vice-chair – Leslie Lindquist
    • Training Coordinator – Kate Soons
    • Treasurer – Karen Danaher
    • Clerk – Chris McCarthy
  • Motion to have Clerk cast one ballot for the nominees in Vice-chair, Training Coordinator, Treasurer, and Clerk (Brent/Jones).  Motion approved.

Motion to adjourn at 2018 (Laskarzewski/Butkus).  Next meeting on Thursday May 10, 2007; time & location TBA. 

Respectfully submitted on May 8, 2007, 

Kate Soons

Clerk

Back to the VTEMSD#3 District Minutes Webpage

Webpage maintained by Greg Thweatt
gthweatt@cssu.org
Last updated: May 10, 2007