It appears that at least in some EMS circles, the premiere of the new A&E series called ‘Nightwatch’ on Thursday (1/22) was a highly anticipated event. I don’t know if it was just a coincidence that it was also the opening day of the NAEMSP conference held this year in New Orleans, where the EMS-themed reality show was filmed, […]

The end of the year is a great time to take stock in what has already passed and to make plans for the future. The vision I had when I started this blog four years ago was summarized in my first blog post, Hello World. Welcome to HP_EMS!  I’m glad to say that today, while many other […]

Rob Lawrence, the Chief Operating Officer of Richmond Ambulance Authority, offered these tips as an article for publication in this blog, but we decided they would make good initial discussion points in an ongoing dialog with our readers and contributors. Consequently, each of these points is made as a separate page under the EMS Deployment […]

We always hear that EMS is still a relatively new discipline. And in the scheme of medicine, or even public safety, that is certainly true. But we shouldn’t let the fact of its youth keep us from acknowledging that it has already been around long enough to accumulate some of its very own antiquated dogma. If you […]

What does it mean to be “successful” in EMS? Have you ever considered what a really “successful” service would look like? Does it have all the latest equipment and consistently ride on the cutting edge of “evidence-based” guidelines rather than blind protocols? Or is it one that has a growing fleet and is constantly looking to hire more staff to […]

In our recently published book, “Dynamic Deployment: A Primer for EMS“, John Brophy and I established a dichotomy between the standards of static deployment and dynamic deployment in the very first chapter.  Fortunately, that strong polar perspective has spurred some interesting discussions for me. While the check-out lane analogy was effective in distinguishing some of the differences of static […]

There is plenty of talk about “evidence-based procedures” in EMS lately. Well, today I read an interesting article that shows a link between being busier and better patient outcomes. Okay…, now after reading that statement, what just happened to your heart rate? Was your automatic response to click the link in order find fault so you can dismiss the finding, […]

Ideas often take time to saturate a market. Even if the idea is generally recognized as a good one, complete with compelling evidence, change can still take time.  As a current example, how many agencies still have a protocol for complete spinal immobilization on a long spine board for “any fall” or “significant impact”?  On that very […]

While naloxone (marketed under various trademarks including Narcan) is not a new drug, it has enjoyed some incredible news coverage recently as the “safe antidote” for opioid abuse that can bring an overdose victim back “from the dead” simply and safely with “no side effects.” The surge in its popularity is undoubtedly fueled by a growing problem of opioid drug abuse, especially in the […]

I’m sure that the interested audience for the new Ferno iN/X “power stretcher” was smaller at FDIC 2014 than it would have been if it were released in time for the EMS Today conference earlier this year. But maybe that was a good thing for me because, even though the booth was still crowded, I […]