Friday, September 14, 2007  THE AMBULANCE SAFETY AWARENESS PROGRAM AT BALDWIN EMS They say necessity is the mother of invention. And every change or burst of creativity begins with the identification of a problem and the opportunity to do something to fix it. A conference held in southwestern Pennsylvania in October 2005 sparked the creation of one of the most talked about ambulance safety initiatives in the state. Two years later, the fruit of one team’s work—Baldwin EMS Medic 515—was unveiled at the Pennsylvania EMS Update Conference in April 2007. “Medic 515 is the future of emergency medical services in Pennsylvania,” says Pennsylvania Bureau of EMS Director Joseph W. Schmider. “The vehicle is loaded with more than 40 additional safety features than the standard ambulance. We will be testing the new equipment to see how we can improve ambulance safety in communities across the commonwealth.” A 2007 Ford F-450 Life Line Type I ambulance, Medic 515 represents a mosaic of safety innovations that resulted from “outside the box” EMS thinking and “inside the box” daily patient care. EMTs and paramedics who work in ambulances every day conceptualized most of the safety modifications. The new designs had to be practical so the crew would embrace and actually use them. Additionally, the design had to be functional so day-to-day EMS operations wouldn’t suffer. The Safety Spark Baldwin EMS Chief William Plunkett and I were among the providers who attended the EMS safety conference in 2005. The conference was sponsored by two of the commonwealth’s EMS offices—the Emergency Medical Service Institute and EMMCO West Regional EMS Council. After listening to staggering national statistics of needless and, in many cases preventable, EMS injuries and deaths, we left the conference convinced of the overall lack of safety awareness education in EMS and the ambulance design areas that contributed to many injuries and deaths. As a result, we were motivated to evaluate and contribute to the improvement of safety awareness and ambulance design. With Plunkett’s support, the Baldwin EMS staff embarked on a mission to improve overall ambulance safety in Pennsylvania. Ambulance design modifications, as well as new training and education modules, became the pillars for the development of the multi-tiered Baldwin EMS Ambulance Safety Awareness Program (ASAP). This program involves continuing education (CE) programs on provider safety and ambulance design training in hopes that all EMS personnel recognize the need to establish a safer work environment and to encourage a more safety-minded culture. Along with such safety innovations as a newly designed ambulance prototype, ASAP incorporated two CE programs. ASAP integrates driver safety awareness with DriveCam monitoring devices, enhanced seatbelt and restraint systems, improved audible and visual safety alerts, and an improved patient treatment area design that creates a safer ambulance work environment. Also included is an education program specifically tailored to teach highway traffic safety techniques and review fundamental safety measures to employ when working on a roadway, which should be second nature to all public safety personnel. Baldwin EMS began its 18-month initiative to design a new ambulance from bumper to bumper by evaluating existing vehicles in service throughout southwestern Pennsylvania and identifying areas that could potentially pose a danger to ambulance crews. Findings included such risk areas as: • A general lack of padding in the patient compartment interior; • Seatbelts that weren’t properly anchored or didn’t allow the wearer to provide adequate patient care while belted; • Equipment that wasn’t easily accessible to the EMS provider without standing and reaching across patients; and • Equipment that wasn’t properly secured or could have become a dangerous projectile in the event of a collision. Baldwin EMS officials recognized the complexity of identifying the potential risks and implementing ambulance design changes to address each risk, so they made a decision to unite a larger group of interested parties to move ASAP forward. The new project team included representatives of the Department of Health’s Bureau of EMS, the Emergency Medical Service Institute (EMSI), Life Line Emergency Vehicle (the vehicle’s manufacturer), Pfund Superior Sales (which facilitated development and delivery of the vehicle) and Baldwin EMS. Life Line also worked directly with a number of specialty vendors that provided components for the new ambulance, which require top-grade materials tailored to the design of the new vehicle. This partnership approach converged talents, interests and perspectives of the participants with the common goal of designing an ambulance to increase the level of safety available to EMS providers without disrupting the functionality of providing patient care. The inclusion of the Department of Health and regional EMS councils in the development phase was unique and ultimately essential to the overall success of the project. Their involvement, in addition to providing partial funding of the engineering redesign costs, demonstrated resounding support for this safety initiative, says Michael Huff, deputy secretary for Health Planning and Assessment. “The Pennsylvania Department of Health was proud to play a part in the design of this state of the art ambulance that will directly impact the safety and efficiency of emergency care in Pennsylvania,” he says. The Cost of Safety Unfortunately, safer ambulance designs aren’t a bargain, due to the increased costs associated with engineering and manufacturing modifications. Some EMTs, paramedics and EMS agency directors have expressed concerns that without supplemental funding, such as that provided for Medic 515, their service won’t be able to purchase a similarly built and equipped ambulance. However, the design team for Medic 515 is hopeful that, as the purchasers of new ambulances demand safer designs, manufacturers will begin to build many of the safety modifications as standard features, making enhanced vehicles more affordable. Even if ambulance manufacturers incorporate only one or two of these safer design modifications, it will be one step closer to providing the safest environment possible for our crews. • By PAUL SHIRING, EMT-P • September 2007 JEMS Vol. 32 No. 9 • 2007 Sept  

Sunday, September 9, 2007  Our small volunteer department is proud to boast success for our yearly MDA Fill the Boot Drive. Although personnel turnout for the event is usually minimal our little town really steps up with donations, some people even drive by more than one time to give again and again. We are in South Texas and we usually do the drive twice a year from 7am to afternoon in May and August. Temperatures can reach over 100 degrees on the blacktop, so we always have plenty of water and shade and encourage lots of breaks. But I am especially proud to share these pictures, although we did not stand out in full bunker gear everyone wore some sort of reflective and highly visible cover to enhance our visibility in the street and avoid injury. Not visible in the pictures are traffic cones and signs over a hundred feet before the intersection to warn drivers to slow down and approach with caution. We are proud to report no injuries in the several years we have been doing this and thousands of dollars raised for MDA! Hope this encourages others to “do it right” and consider safety in all aspects of the job.  

Sunday, August 5, 2007  Today the Engine and the Squad with 9 men worked out at the High School. Crew’s ran hills and laps with full gear and SCBA. The tight knit crew has been working out together for a while now so we added something a little more intense......  

Tuesday, July 31, 2007  Here are some pictures that were taken on May 26,2007. Volusia County Fire Services Engine Companies 15- I was the initial arriving company officer  

Thursday, July 12, 2007  I thought you might like to see a few photos of us(Volusia County Fire Services Engine 14 and Ormond Beach Fire Department Quint 91 ) on a car fire in all our PPE including SCBA. Upon arrival we found a 1985 Honda LX 4 door with heavy smoke and two civilians attacking the fire with the "green line" ( with apologies to Capt Bill Gustin Miami Dade FD). Very minimal active fire.The guy in the blue shirt said " I'm a fire fighter" and backed off for a few seconds then tried to get back into the action. He was eventually shoed away.  

Thursday, May 17, 2007  About 6 months ago we took delivery of a new Pierce, with anti-lock breaks, independent front suspension and camera system which records from the time the truck it turned on, until it is turned off. The crew was out this morning, doing a streets class, no light, no siren, driving the speed limit of 35 mph. In the video format you can see that the white pick up did not stop at the stop sign on the off ramp. First picture would have been taken about 10:37:47.0, the second picture at 10:37:48.0 and the third picture at 10:37:48.5. The brand new driver, who had just completed an intense Driver/Operator Course, hit the breaks, could feel the anti-lock breaks doing their job, and swerved to miss the back end of the pick-up. The driver did a great job of keeping the vehicle under control, the vehicle did a great job, with the anti-lock breaks and independent front suspension, allowing him to miss the pick-up. Had they been in one of the other vehicles, without these options, I believe they would have skidded into the pickup or lost control of the vehicle. The lessons learned are simple, there is no excuse for good training and more training and providing the right equipment to do the job, we had to do a lot of convincing to add these options, but they just paid for themselves. Glad that this one, will not make your secret list, unless you want it under one that went right. Mark Wendelsdorf Fire Chief Caldwell Fire and Rescue  

Thursday, April 12, 2007  Our THANKS to the Landsdowne VFD in Baltimore County, MD  

Sunday, April 8, 2007  Congrats to the Columbia, SC on this successful house fire rescue. Good Job Guys  

Friday, April 6, 2007  This picture is from I-294 in the Chicagoland Area. The Pleasantview Fire Protection District, GETS IT! when it comes to blocking traffic on the highway, good job guys!  

Friday, April 6, 2007  This picture shows PG County, MD wearing proper turnout gear at an accident scene.