In this issue:

• In Memoriam

• Checkrides

• From the desk of the COO

• EMSA Collecting HUGS

• EMSA featured in HUGLAHOMA

• EMSA, SCA rates six times national average

• KUDOS letter

• West Academy Graduates

• I’m Just Sayin’

• Meet your co-workers

• BYU students interm

• Birthdays, Anniversaries, Commendations

• Next paramedic school

• Health & Safety Committee seek members

October2012

By: James Postoak, Para-medicSeptember 6, 2012, was supposed to be another day, just another Thursday on the streets. Thursdays are days that I typically pick up OT. In-stead it turned into a day that I likely won’t ever forget… for a number of reasons.That day was by far the most difficult I’ve ever had as a paramedic. That’s the day that my good friend, colleague and one fabulous lady died. That day reminded me just how difficult life can be and how mortal even we as life-savers are. I don’t know that I ’ v e e v e r cons id-ered the possibility that one of us could be the pa-tient. I hated being on the scene and yet, I’m glad I was. I couldn’t be more proud to work in this system along-side every sin-gle one of you.

That day reminded me just how close knit of a family all of us in EMS are, especially those of us here at EMSA and even more so those of us on the nightshift, we’re a tight knit bunch and you’d have a hard time busting us apart. That’s probably why this has all been so hard for me and a number of you as well. I’ve come to real-ize that my closest friends and people most important to me are all coworkers and colleagues or someone that I’ve in some way met through my

c a r e e r here at EMSA. I in-

clude Lisa in that group as

she never failed to open up her home and dinner table to a num-ber of us. I couldn’t begin to tell you how many loaves of banana nut bread or southern comfort cake I’ve eaten from her over the years.

Over these last few weeks, I have wit-nessed an o u t p o u r -ing of love and sad-

ness for our friend that I have never

seen before. There have been literally hundreds of Facebook posts, pic-

Cont’d Page 2

In Memoriam: Lisa Alexander, Paramedic

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tures and even group dinners at Mexico Lindo (Lisa’s favorite). Ad-ditionally a page has been cre-ated in her memory titled “She’s a Medic.” I encourage everyone to share pictures and memories.

I will never forget that night last August. It was one of those nights that we have all grown accustom to calling Trauma Tuesday. If you’ve ever worked a Tuesday nightshift, then you know why we call it that. That particular Tuesday more than lived up to its name and was com-pounded by what turned out to be a severe storm that pounded the metro and dumped an enormous amount of rain in a short amount of time. That’s the night that Lisa and Kelby’s paths just happened to cross that of our friend and ER nurse Jenn Kolb from SJMC. She had become trapped in her car in floodwaters and Lisa and Kelby

took action that likely saved her life.

I remember them calling me thinking that they were in trouble…. for post lagging or because a call had gone late during that rescue. That abso-lutely wasn’t the case. Their actions that night made them our Stars of Life. Their actions that night made me proud to be their colleagues and even prouder to be their supervisor.

Lisa was in every sense of the word a Star of Life. She was an expe-rienced, accomplished paramedic that had a career unmatched by anyone else that I know. For 33 years, she answered 911 calls from those that needed her help and skill. For 33 years, she did it to the best of her abilities and always with a great attitude and a smile on her face. For 33 years she was a friend, surrogate mother to her coworkers and an accomplished

baker of the best banana nut bread ever. For 33 years she was an as-set to the citizens she served…. the last four-and-a-half of those in Tulsa, here with all of us at EMSA.

I know Lisa will continue to be our Star of Life and will always be watching over us. For that, I’m grateful. We should all take a les-son from Lisa in that she treated every patient compassionately and respectfully. No matter how busy of a shift or how late she was get-ting off work, Lisa could always be heard saying, “We’re out at corpo-rate, y’all have a real good night.”

Lisa… I’ll show you out… you have a real good night and we’ve got it from here.

Lisa Alexander Cont’d

I was approached by the Training Department just a few short weeks ago concerning checkrides for the entire Western Division personnel who have street privileges. Since implementing the Road Safety System, there was a little confusion as to what is the correct way to drive with the system in place. Lt Laura Knowlton and I were privileged to be chosen to go out into the field and help out with the checkrides and help people learn how to drive utilizing the Road Safety System. It has been a very positive experience and in minimal time we started seeing positive results. The weekly road safety reports are proof that we can drive better as a company and drive better as individuals. When we first started the checkrides, about five weeks ago, we had around 30-35 employees that were getting overall scores of 1s and 2s. Since then that number has steadily decreased each week down to about six employees with 1s and 2s. Each week I see a huge difference in the way we drive.

From what I’ve seen, I believe in this system and I have the utmost confidence in all of you that we can eliminate the low scores all together and make ourselves safer, which is our ultimate goal- to go home to our families at the end of every shift. We are a much better company as a whole in our approach to driving. All of you guys and gals need to pat yourself on the back because you deserve all the credit for the end result being an overall positive success. Keep up the hard work and I’m hon-ored to be able to work with true professionals on a daily basis. Thank you.

Capt Mike CainLead EMT Western Division

Memo from Capt. Mike Cain re: Checkrides

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John Peterson, COO

In the last edition of the “On Scene” newsletter you read a little about our first ever hub that will be located in Bixby. Since the release of the newsletter, the local news media has picked up the story and the word is spreading quickly. Here is a link to the Channel 2 story about the Bixby Hub: http://www.jems.com/video/news/emsa-opens-second-center-tulsa.

The Bixby hub officially began op-erations on September 24. There will be five units that will deploy out of the hub on 12-hour shifts and will provide 24/7 coverage to the Bixby, south Tulsa and Jenks areas. A sixth unit will be used as a spare. Keep an eye out for postings regarding our Bixby hub grand opening ceremony.

Another story that is making head-lines comes out of our Fort Wayne, Indiana, Paramedics Plus operation called Three Rivers Ambulance Au-thority or TRAA. A crew was transport-ing a stabbing victim when a gunman opened fire on the ambulance and the family following in their car. The gunman used a high power, possibly automatic rifle in an attempt to kill the

stabbing victim who was being treat-ed in the back of the unit. The ambu-lance was shot at least 17 times and the victim’s family, who were following the ambulance in their personal vehi-cle, were shot multiple times. Thank-fully our crew only received minor in-juries. Here is a link to the local news story regarding this incident: http://www.jems.com/video/news/ambu-lance-shot-least-17-times-while-tran.

Please let this be a reminder that scene safety is of utmost importance and that it is imperative to make sure we all go home safely to our families.

Finally, it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to paramedic Lisa Alex-ander. Lisa passed away on Septem-ber 6. I regret not having a chance to get to know her as I have heard so many wonderful things about what kind of person she was and what a great paramedic she was. While she left us way too soon, we will never forget the impact she made on our lives, our patients and our community. As always, be safe out there!

From the Desk of the COO

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EMSA employees collecting H.U.G.S.

The recently formed Community Ambassadors crew for the eastern division of EMSA is organizing a H.U.G.S. collection drive for the first week of November.

The ambassadors will set up stations throughout Tulsa to collect hats, underwear, gloves and socks to be donated to those in need this winter.

The ambassadors program was created in August to help give EMSA a face in the community and provide a formal process to engage in civic and community activities. Ambassadors are asked to represent EMSA at public engagements and help educate the public in medical, safety and health issues where appropriate.

The founding members of the community ambassadors program are: Chase Coates, EMTJames Postoak, ParamedicEd McConville, ParamedicLindsay Holloway, EMT/TRECJennifer White Hamilton, NREMT-BKatherine Wakefield, Paramedic

If you would like to help with the H.U.G.S. project, please contact Brianne Smedley at smedleyb@emsa.net.

Chase Coates and Jennifer White Hamilton are two members of the Community Ambassadors crew recently started in the Eastern Division.

Tulsa photographer Evan Taylor has been on a tour of the state photographing Oklahomans about their love of the state. He recently visited the EMSA headquarters in Tulsa and asked EMTs Josie Saltarelli and Daniel Fitzgerald and Lead SSC Stephanee Corbet Whitlow what they love about Oklahoma. Here were their responses.

“I huglahoma because I believe this is a great state to live and raise your children.” – Stephanee Corbet Whitlow

“Love our citizens!” – Josie Saltarelli

“I love Oklahoma because of the small town feel. Everyone is always willing and ready to help their neighbor in their time of need.” – Daniel Fitzgerald

EMSA employees featured in Huglahoma project

Brianne Smedley, EMT-BJames Busse-Jones, ParamedicJames Hart, ParamedicKayla Kelley, ParamedicJoshua Choate, Paramedic

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O k l a h o m a Medical Di-rector Dr. J e f f r e y G o o d l o e and Jim Winham, general m a n -ager of Emer-gency

Medical Ser-v i c - es Authority (EMSA) reported in the August and Sep-tember issues of the Journal of Emergency Medical Services a nearly 10 percent increase in Okla-homa survival ratings among sud-den cardiac arrest patients to more than six times the national average.

The 10 percent increase puts Oklahoma’s long maintained “very good” survival (discharge-to-home survival) rate hovering around 40 percent, which is more than 30 percent above the nation-al average of 6.3 percent. These results are based on patients who had a witnessed collapse, received some form of bystander CPR and were found in a shock-able rhythm on first EMS contact. The increase comes upon imple-mentation of interval improve-ments over the past three years.

The article is featured in a two part series in the August and Sep-

tember issues of JEMS in which the two authors outline their on-going assessment and findings in sudden cardiac arrest care with results analyzed through 2010.

“EMSA has done a comprehen-sive restructuring of their cardiac arrest program in a three-part ap-proach: chest compression fun-damentals, resuscitation team dy-namics and accelerating feedback on resuscitation performance,” said Goodloe. “We’re pushing to be the largest system in the U.S. (maybe anywhere) with 50 percent-plus survival from wit-nessed, bystander-CPR support-ed, out-of-hospital v fib arrests.”

The changes implemented over the past three years to in-crease survival rates have re-sulted from new medical and field research including a trip to Seattle Medic One last spring. The combined research efforts led to the following changes:

Move from 100 compres-sions per minute to 120 compressions per minute. Build on the concept of tightly defined resuscitation roles for all levels of EMS professionals. Incorporate hands-on, sta-tion-level training taught di-rectly by medical oversight of-ficers and the medical director. Stay the course with the im-

pedance threshold device. Get more aggres-sive in initiating post-arrest therapeutic hypothermia.

Armed with this information and self-implementation, the Okla-homa EMSA coverage area is being looked at as a model among EMS systems nation-wide. New data is constantly being collected and analyzed by the Oklahoma Medical Director’s Office with the goal of reaching a 50 percent-plus survival rate.

“The gold standard is what we’re capable of,” said Goodloe. “We’re not going to stop and be satis-fied at a number. We’re never going to stop trying to improve.”

The complete article is avail-able in a two-part series in the August and September JEMS is-sues found online at jems.com.

EMSA coverage area reports sudden cardiac arrestsurvivor rates six times the national average

Industry publication features Oklahoma Medical Director,EMS system’s new practices

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To: G. Keith Bryant, Fire Chief Dr.JefferyGoodloe,MedicalDirector JohnPeterson,EMSAChiefOperatingOfficer JimWinham,EMSAGeneralManager

From: JamesBlocker OCFD,EMSCoordinator Date: October5,2012

Subject: AppreciationMemo

ThismemoistoexpressmysincereappreciationtotheFireandEMSApersonnelthatrespondedtoaseriousaccidentinvolvingfamilymembers.OnTuesdayevening10/2/12,station14-AandthreeEMSAunitsrespondedtoamulti-vehicleMVAthatinvolvedmysisterin-lawJanaandbrotherin-lawRory.MywifeandIreceivedacallregardingtheaccidentandthatJanawasbeingtransportedpriority1totheTraumaCenter,butwewerenotwherewecouldgettothehospitalquickly.

WhenwearrivedattheED,mywife’sfamilywasinthewaitingroom.FamilycommentedthattheEDseemedunderstaffedandthatinitiallytheyfeltJanaandRorywerenotreceivingthecareandattentionneeded.However,anEMSAParamediccameinandmadesureJanaandRorywerebeingtakencareofandatthesametimeprovidedreassurancetothevisitingfamilymembers.TheEMSAParamedictoldfamilymembersthatsheknewmeandwouldstaywithJanaandRoryuntilIarrived.ThisunsolicitedgestureofEMSAParamedicSusiePattersonhadaprofoundeffectonourfamilyprovidingthemamuchneededsourceofcomfort.WealsolearnedofthecareprovidedbyEMSAandOCFDonscene.BothJanaandRoryhaveexpressedgratitudeattheprofessionalismandlevelofcaregiventothemduringthistraumaticevent.

ThesupportwereceivedduringthisverydifficulttimeisatestamenttothefamilycultureofourprofessionandtheincrediblemenandwomenthatIhavetheprivilegetowork.ListedarethosethatIhaddirectinteraction,butalsowantedtoexpressmysinceregratitudetoallinvolvedintheincidentresponse.

Susie Patterson, EMSA Jonathan Davis, OCFD Chris Lillenburg, EMSA

Greg Ford, EMSA Chris Brady, OCFD David Howerton, MCB

   

MEMORANDUM The City of

OKLAHOMA CITY Fire Department

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Email usEMSA employee feedback is critical to ensure quality care for our patients and a quality work environment for employees. There are several ways you can provide comments, suggestions, questions or kudos to be received by senior management.Have a question about a process, procedure or general issue?Askit@emsa.net

Have an idea or suggestion on how to improve processes, procedures or the general work environment?Brightideas@emsa.net Want to pat someone on the back?Starcare@emsa.net

Each employee newsletter will feature resolutions to problems, implementation of new ideas and kudos to teammates.

Watch Where You Park

EAST—Employee parking is NOT permitted in the lot immediately in front of EMSA’s front doors. These few spots are reserved for patients and visitors to our facility. Employee parking is located in the gated secure lot just west of Lansing Avenue. Due to increased traffic on Lansing, street parking is equally discouraged.

Note: Illegally parked vehicles may be towed.

July 2012 West Academy graduates

Bottom row, left to right: Major Dan Whipple, Lisa Lester, Sabra Estell, Josh Ernst, Lauren Brown, Tami RiosTop row: Tyler Griffitts, Greg Johnson, Chris Graves, Skye Mellow, Don Burt, Cory Hawk, Chris Johnson, Corey Hamlin.

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Every day we come to work, clock in and ready ourselves for a day of driving 75-100-plus miles, stepping in and out of the ambulance more times than we’d like to count and running 8-10 calls on an average day. We have more than doubled our call volume in the last 10 years and I think that we can all attest that when we go home at the end of the day we are worn out. Forty-eight hours a week is a lot for anyone to work and most of us pick up an extra shift or two during that same week. By “outsiders” we are probably looked at as nothing short of crazy. I’ve often asked myself why do we do this to ourselves? After 11 years in this field I think that I have finally come to a reasonable answer. Because we love what we do!

With that being said we do all have our own complaints about the service that we give our lives to. I ran the same patient eight times last week or why do I have to go to another emergency transfer at St. Francis South? At times we become complacent and forget that for the majority of us, this is what we are meant to do. I know this sounds corny, but this is a career that picks you and not the other way around. I have always been told that paramedics and EMTs fit a certain mold and I couldn’t agree more. I searched the web long and hard for a good

quote that summarizes what we need to keep in mind in the above situation and this is what I found.

“Never complain that a patient wasn’t having an emergency (when they genuinely felt that they were) just because you knew how to deal with their medical problem… this may appear like a routine case for you, but to them, it may have been the greatest emergency they have ever faced in their lives.” –Anonymous

Always keep in mind that each patient truly believes that his call to 911 is a legitimate emergency, whether you think it is or not. I know that I would never call an ambulance if my son scraped his knee, however we have probably all ran that call at least once. Why do people call for something as minor as this? Stop and think for a minute… we’ve had countless hours of education and hands-on training to attain our certifications. The person who called has no medical training whatsoever. People get scared and nervous and I truly believe that they, in one shape or fashion, believe that we are their protectors. We are life savers ya know, its kinda what we do and all.

We live and breathe the STAR CARE standard set forth by EMSA. Can everyone name what each letter stands for?

Safe, Team-based, Attentive to human needs, Respectful, Customer accountable, Appropriate, Reasonable and Ethical. I once had a new employee ask me what the best advice I had for him to keep his job at EMSA. For a second I thought about what I was going to tell him. Of course I wanted this to sound inspirational and words that he would remember for the rest of his life. I quickly came to the conclusion that I would keep it simple. Come to work, do your job to the best of your abilities, try your hardest to not kill anyone, go home and leave your work at work. He seemed impressed and four years later that certain employee still works for us. I have never asked him if he took this advice to heart but it has seemed to work for him. Always keep in mind that you are in one of the best professions in the world. We get to help people and at times even save lives, and in my opinion there’s nothing better than that.

I’m Just

Sayin’By:MichaelGarrison,FOS

The state of EMSA

Want to write a guest column? Please email your topic to

editor@emsa.netAccepted articles will need to be a maximum of 250 words.

Stephanie Jones, Supervisor SSC, Eastern Division

How many years have you been in EMS? 16 years. How many years have you lived in Tulsa? I was born in Tulsa. I’ve lived in Collinsville for 33 years. How did you get into this field? A paramedic walked into the store I was working in and I said, “Hey I can do that..” I signed up for EMT school and six months later I was working for EMSA. Your favorite part of the job? Helping people. I am particularly fond of helping elderly folks. Your least favorite part of the job? Really? Belligerent callers…very stressful! What do you do to de-stress? Hi-YAH!!! TaeKwonDo is an awesome stress reliever. I am always looking for a good sparring match :-). I also enjoy being outdoors, shooting, and spending time with my family. What type of experience do you have in EMS? Any special or interesting training? I started with EMSA in August 1996. All of my experience comes from working the streets as a medic. I have spent time helping in materials, worked as an EMT and as a paramedic. I have been an assistant field supervisor, worked in dispatch and now I am a communications super-visor. I have enjoyed all aspects of my career and look forward to many more years of service. What is your favorite thing about Tulsa? The fact that I can work here in one of the best systems in the country, but I can drive north at the end of a shift and get out of the hustle!

MEET YOUR CO-WORKERSJennifer Coker, Paramedic, Western Division

How did you get into EMS? I was pre-med in college and eventually received my biology degree and got married. I wanted to get back into the medical field after some time as an executive assistant and became an EMT at the Jackson County EMS. So after joining the EMSA team, I became a paramedic after three years and have been for two years now. How many years have you been in EMS? Five. How many of those her in OKC? Four. What is your favorite part of OKC? The Bricktown area. I have lived in Oklahoma for 20 years and to watch that area transition from an area “you didn’t go into” and change into the vibrant community has been amazing to see. Least favorite? To see the older parts of town such as Capital Hill slowly deteriorate is sad. What is your favorite part of the job? I love learning a patient’s history and them ac-knowledging that I have helped them. I love be-ing in the back of the truck. Least favorite? I sometimes want to chunk this thing (tablet) out the window. Where has your EMS career taken you in the way of experience? I have been able to get my paramedic license, which was my reason to move to OKC. I want to go on to critical care to improve my patient care and nurse practitioner is a consideration. What do you do for stress relief? Play computer games. Drive to relax. Read. Swim.

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10

Twenty-five students from BYU Idaho are undergoing 10 weeks of intense training as they com-plete their paramedic internship in Oklahoma City.

The 10-week program gives stu-dents the opportunity for hands-on, real-world experience in the emergency medical transport industry. The student paramed-ics are working alongside expe-

rienced EMSA paramedics to learn the ins and outs of Okla-homa’s nationally-recognized program.

Of the 25 students, 14 have already committed to join the EMSA team once their intern-ship is complete and they have passed the national registry exam. EMSA officials continue to recruit the remaining students

as well as students from other programs across the country including Colorado Mountain College, Creighton University in Nebraska and Spartan Commu-nity College in Kansas.

The 10-week internship ends in November.

BYU students completing internship in Western Division

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OctoberAnniversaries

OctoberBirthdays

OctoberAnniversaries

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Aaron Eccard 1 John Peterson 1 Eulogio Ortega-Torres 2 Chad Smith 2 Jason Eldred 2 Emily Cluck 3 Mark Grant Ii 3 Brad Satterfield 3 Patrick Mahjoub 3 Tyler Fisher 3 Josie Saltarelli 3 Jacob Harrington 3 Adam Ashford 3 Yeganeh Azimi 3 Charles Redden 3 Casie Whitney 3 Steven Silvestain 3

Trenton Austin 3 Jill Boeckman 3 Desiree Satterwhite 3 Stephen Barteaux 3 Christopher Kondos 3 Jennifer Coker 6 Timothy Hickerson 6 Kristofer Fullingim 6 Michael Roy 6 Gavin Beck 6 Holly Westin 6 Traunya R. Starnes 10 Teresa Parsons 12 Justin Whinery 13 Michael Mcclendon 13 Patricia Duke 13 Robert D Hill 14 Nicholas Bergeron 14 Robert Phillips 17 Kyle Brice 17 Barry Coleman 17 Bruce E Kelley 17 William J. Wallace Jr. 17 Christian Ritchie 18 Aleksandr Carson 18 Daniel W Swart 20 Tony R Mccarty 25 Richelle Treece 27 Stephanie Powell 29 Eileen Lubinski 29 Michael F Murphy 31

Kasey Larue 02 Roy Smith 02 Roy Lail 04 Michael Mcclendon 04 Abbey Riedl 04 Brant A. Spaulding 04 William J. Wallace Jr. 04 Angela Bales 05 Jason Haggard 05 Mark A. Jarvis 05 Jeffrey J. Rice 06 Daniel M. Whipple 06 Heather Fields 07 Jerry Pursley 07 Jason S. Gallagher 08 Christine Mcdaniel 08 Joanna R. Hickerson 09 Phillip Basham 12 Courtney Flowers 12 James Campbell 13 Robert Catterson 13 Timothy D. Ward 13 Tyler Fletcher 14 Niki R. Whitehead 14 Charles D Young 14 Michael Cline 15 Carey Crump 16 Bradlee Ingraham 16 James M Jordan 16 Michael Mcneer 16 Melody Adams 17 William Roberts 19 Mike B. Hopkins 20 Joell Carlisle 21 Randy Shetter 21 Mallory B. Cook 22 Melissa J Hudson 22 Desiree Satterwhite 22 Stephanie Bradford 24

OctoberBirthdays

Cecilia Pasillas 24 Justin Portilloz 24 Paul K Harding 25 Jodi Ritchie 25 David Shearer 25 Matthew Arroyo 26 Joseph Kelly 26 Ray Tarr 26 Mikka Moore 27 Sarah Courtney 29 Alvaro Bermudez 30 Tyler Wedman 30

&KUDOS Commendations

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Jeremy BakerGavin BeckJill BoekmanBrian BottomDaniel BrownShawn BurchDon BurtAndrew CarpenterCody CluckDerek CordrayKristin DrakeJason EldredJayme GoadJacob HarringtonCory HawkMelissa HeadChad HiltonShawn HoffmanMark JarvisJustin KingSteven LeissnerRichard LoganEd McintyreDerrick McnuttJennifer MobbsMatt RookJosie SaltarelliBrian SiscoTori SpencerDuston ToddDonald WakefieldChris WallerJennifer WhiteRebecca Williams

Health & Safety Committee seeking members

In an effort to develop and promote ahealthy and safe work environment for allteammembers and visitors to the facilities,Paramedics Plus is organizing a Health &Safety Committee. The Safety Committeewill be committed to promoting the safeoperation of vehicles and team memberswhen interacting with the motoring public.Thiswill be accomplished by promoting theprinciples of safety with all team membersthrougheducation, communicationand safework/drivingpractices.

The committee will consist of:1VehicleSafetyTechnician1Mechanic1EMTBasic1Paramedic1SystemStatusController1AssistantFOS1FOS1non-credentialedofficememberTheRisk&SafetyManager(permanent)TheDivisionalClinicalManager(permanent)1AdHocMember

If you are interested in being part of theHealth & Safety Committee, please send aletterofinteresttoJimWinhamatwinhamj@emsa.net.

Next paramedic school forming now

Applications are currently being ac-cepted for the next paramedic school. Interested parties should contact either Stephanie Pryor at pryors@emsa.net or David Gooshaw at gooshawd@emsa.net.