Vermont Emergency Medical Services

District #3 WebPage 

Meeting called to order at 1915 by Chair Seth Lasker at FAHC Davis Auditorium. 

INTRODUCTIONS (Lasker) 

• None

APPROVAL OF MINUTES (Lasker) 

• Motion to approve the minutes for April 12, 2007 (Brent/Kellogg).  Motion approved.

CORRESPONDENCE (Soons)

• From Becca Webb (received April 30, 2007) – notice that the module 1-2-3 course scheduled for Vergennes has been cancelled due to low enrollment.
• Dr. James has a letter from Dr. Lefler reviewing his thoughts from the meeting in April.

TREASURY (Danaher) 

• Checking account balance: $3218.51
• Savings account balance: $13140.91
• Motion to accept the Treasurer’s Report (Ziter/Brent).  Motion approved.

MEDICAL DIRECTION (James) 

• HeART Foundation – The units are tentatively scheduled to arrive the first week of June.   The training for trainers will be scheduled once they have been received.  It will include 12-lead training.  Services will be required to trade in a Zoll unit for the new one.  Discussion followed.  Question asked if this was always part of the quote that was received, as services were not aware this would be required.   Dr. James advised it was part of the quote.   Question asked what will happen if services do not want to trade in a unit.  Leslie Lindquist advised then it will cost services between $8000-$9000.  Question asked if the program would be jeopardized if services opted out.  Dr. James reported it would, that we would not be able to get a better deal.  Question asked about next steps.  Colchester Rescue will bring their AED to the next meeting and provide a demonstration.  Leslie Lindquist will follow up with Pete Landry, Zoll, as to what Zoll is expecting for trade-in and the cost for services if they decide not to trade an existing unit in.  Deb Baron will look into the issue of trading in defibrillators that were purchased with federal funding and if this can be done. 
• QA/QI
  • Case reviews:  The first case review was held prior to the District meeting and focused on trauma.  Many comments on how well it was received. 

FAHC (Helmken)

• EMT Room – has been moved.  It is smaller but closer to ambulances and radios work better.  The locker space has been condensed, and there are two computers in the room.   Kij reported she is looking into different monitors and keyboards to increase desk space. 
• AED Upgrades – no news.

TRAINING (Soons)

• Course Updates:
  • FR-ECA – Huntington class started 5/1 with 10 students.  Tuesday evening classes will be moved to Hinesburg Fire Station.  Testing will be 7/10.
  • Modules – cancelled.  Will reconsider holding them in the fall.
  • Underhill – final exam is tonight
  • Spring EMT-B classes – Both classes tested last weekend.   Thirty eight students tested and there were many station failures.   Eleven of the failures were at the AED station, most due to a misinterpretation of the scenario.  Pat has been following up with Dan Manz and Ray Walker about this.  Prior to this test, the state EMS office had not seen many problems with the station.  The issue came down to an interpretation of witnessed versus unwitnessed arrest.   Pat and Jason did nothing different this semester in their teaching of the AED protocol and students were required to have current CPR prior to entering the class.  Question asked if the district would hold a special re-test.  It was agreed students could re-test on the 6/28 certification testing for the summer classes.   Reminder to services to help re-educate their members who had station failures.  Kate will draft a letter on behalf of the district to the EMS Office for written document on the definition of witnessed and unwitnessed cardiac arrest.
  • EMT-B once weekly – There was a high school student in the class who was 18 at the time of test, but had not graduated yet. 
  • Spring EMT-I – Class is moving along.  Just took second exam and students are moving along with their skills.  They are almost ready to go into the ED.  Testing will be 6/28.
  • Summer EMT-B - Class starts tomorrow evening.  It is full with 24 students.
• Course Proposals: will be presented at the June meeting
• Upcoming Training Opportunities:
  • Case reviews will be held the 2^nd Thursday of the month from 1800-1900 before District board meeting.  Attendance at the meeting is worth 1 hour of CE credit.  Discussion held on the location for meetings.   Seth received some emails following the April meeting that Davis Auditorium is not a good set up for the board meeting, although it worked well for the case review tonight.  Next month’s meeting is tentatively scheduled for the McClure lobby.  Pat Malone will look into getting space at Rowell for meetings.  Seth asked reps to talk up case reviews back at their services.
  • UVM Rescue will be having Pandemic Flu training in September. 
• Other:
  • EMT-B and EMT-I certification/recertification testing will be 6/28.
  • Pulse Ox for EMT-B: The training is almost completed.  Dr. James has it and will be reviewing it.  Once it has been approved each service will receive a CD with the PowerPoint presentation and a 10 question review. 

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (Lindquist)

• No meeting tonight

• MCI – working on prototype.
• Code 3 – finalizing.

ADMINISTRATION (Soons/McCarthy)

• Kate will be working on delivering an EMT-I document next month that will contain all the pertinent intermediate information.
• More than half of the ALS reports have not yet been turned in.  Reminder to services to complete them.  Once they are all in, Chris will collate the numbers.

PUBLIC INFORMATION (Soons)

• Still looking for host site for the district website.  Pat will follow up with UVM.   Jim Kellogg has offered the Chittenden County Training Committee’s site to the district.   Still need someone to help with the website and help set it up.  Question asked about the listserv switchover.  Some people have not been getting emails since the switch.   Kate will check with Greg Thweatt on this. 
• Kids Day/EMS Week:  scheduled for 5/19 on the Waterfront.  Jason asked that services call him right away if they are still interested in participating.  Currently very few have been in contact, and if there is a lack of interest, we will not participate.
• EMS Week:  Dr. James reported that Dr. Lefler will be doing a PSA for EMS week.  Asked about Heart Foundation making an announcement that week about the program.  Consensus was this should wait until rollout of the units.

OLD BUSINESS (Lasker)

• System Assessment – Kate has been communicating with Drew Dawson at NITSA about this issue.   It was agreed the Executive Committee will discuss this and update more next month.   Kij reported that she spoke with some people at the EMS conference about a system assessment and will talk with the Executive Committee more.

NEW BUSINESS (Lasker)

• Lee Jones presented to the board a proposal from Richmond Rescue titled “Winter Weather Events on the Interstate Richmond/Bolton”.  This came from discussions between Richmond Rescue and Dr. James to clarify how to deal with extreme weather emergencies.  Motion made to table this and have discussion take place with the Executive Committee at the service level.  (Ziter/Lindquist).  If the proposal would benefit other services, the committee should then bring it back to the district meeting.  Motion approved. 
• Lamoille Ambulance is looking to replace their older rigs.  If services are considering trading in rigs, Lamoille may be willing to purchase them.   JD can be contacted.

Motion to adjourn at 2100. (Rembisz/Jones).  Motion approved.

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Last updated: June 26, 2007