Emergency Medical Services Board Meeting

April 5, 2006

 

 

Board Members Present:                             Bureau Staff:

Gloria Murawsky                                             Larry Gilbertson

Steve Bane                                                      Brian Litza

Brenda Fellenz                                                 Cathy Etter

Troy Haase                                                      Helen Pullen

Cal Lintz                                                          Ann Moses

Ken Johnson                                                    LeeAnn Cooper

Joe Covelli                                                       Marianne Peck

Mark Fredrickson                                            Dan Williams

Travis Teesch                                                  

                                                                       

Board Members Excused:

Tracy Aldrich

 

Others in Attendance:                       Representing:

Joe Jensen                                            Regions Hospital EMS

Tom Brazelton                                      EMSC/UW Children’s

Charles Cady                                        PAC/Milwaukee County

Gregory West                                       Waukesha County Technical College

Carrie Meffert                                      Dane County EMS

Tim Hillebrand                                      Dane County EMS

Jan Beyer                                             UW EMS Program

Mary Pilling                                          Southwest Technical College

Tina Jordan                                           Blackhawk Technical College

John Huot                                             Life Link III

Chris Schultz                                         Life Link III

Bryan Northrop                                     Beloit Fire Dept.

Linda Pace                                           MATC – Madison

Dave Larsuel                                        Lake Mills

Ken Sternig                                          Milwaukee County EMS

Fred Hornby                                         Bell Ambulance

Suzanne Martens                                   Sheboygan County EMS

Jeff Grimm                                           Theda Star/STAC

Barbara Larson                                     Moundview Memorial Hospital/STAC

Bob Nack                                             Fox Valley RTAC

Nettie Jenkins                                       Thedacare

Steve Stroman                                       Aurora Bay Care/STAC

Robert Ramerez                                    Southeast RTAC

Dan Diamon                                         Lake Superior RTAC

John Schindler                                       Meda-Care Ambulance

Brian Reynolds                                      Milwaukee County EMS Council

Laura Ahola                                          Divine Savior Health

Tom Fennell                                          Gold Cross-Mayo Medical Transport

Judy Jones                                            Luther Hosp Eau Claire/NWRTAC

Don Kimlicka                                        St Clare’s Hosp-Weston

Barb Kuska                                          Beloit Memorial Hosp

Steve Krantz                                         Gold Cross, Fox Valley

Robin Schultz                                        Sacred Heart Hospital, Eau Claire

Merilee Carlson                                    Memorial Med Center – Ashland

Nan Peterson                                       UW Children’s Hospital/EMSC

 

Welcome and Introductions: Chair Steve Bane called the meeting to order at 1:00 PM at the Sheraton - Madison, WI. Steve welcomed everyone and asked the audience to introduce themselves. Dan Williams introduced the new Director for the Bureau of Local Health Support and EMS, Larry Gilbertson. Larry addressed the group and provided his background information and thoughts about what he plans for the Bureau. Larry also thanked everyone for their involvement in the various committees and boards. Steve Bane also welcomed Larry.

 

1.      Approval of previous Board Meeting Minutes: 

 

A Motion by, Johnson, second by Covelli to approve the minutes from the February 2006 meeting. Motion Carried.

 

2.      Committee Updates:

 

EMS Education: Gloria Murawsky, committee chair reported the following meeting topics:

 

1.      The committee discussed future format, layout and other logistical issues surrounding the proposed changes for EMT-Refresher training. The committee felt that further discussion needs to be held and is planning on having a special meeting in May.

 

2.      Most of the rest of the meeting was spent working on defining the core educational items that need to be identified for the EMT-Basic Refresher. Several different methods were discussed for how this will be accomplished. It is hoped that the special meeting will also be able to define these issues as well.

 

3.      Gloria advised the Board that the final EMT-Basic curriculum had been completed and rolled out at the February Instructor Conference. July 1, 2007 will be the mandatory implementation date.

 

 

EMS Policy and Practice Committee: Travis Teesch, committee chair reported the following meeting topics:

 

1.      The committee discussed the status of the HFS-110 and HFS-111 emergency rule process. Dan advised that a technical timing issue had come up that was outside of our control and that it was related to the Legislative schedules.

 

2.      The committee will be inviting the new Ambulance Inspector to its next meeting to discuss issues that have come up since he has started to inspect again and to discuss a time table for the possibility of opening Trans 309 for review and revision.

 

3.      Dan asked the committee to review and develop a process for determining what scope of practice items should be established as mandatory and by what future date. It was noticed that over the past couple of years the scope has been expanded and the question has come up at what point should certain skills be identified as those that all Basic EMT’s should be doing as every day practice. This needs further discussion and PAC input as well to assure that a  proper plan is put into place with a sufficient compliance period.

 

EMS Information Management: Ken Johnson, committee chair reported on the following:

 

1.      Dr. Johnson reported that over 20 services were working as pilot services and had submitted over 2,000 calls. The information is now being looked at to determine level of difficulty and completeness with any problems being encountered and dealt with in a timely fashion.

 

2.      The EMS office is continuing to work on interface issues and bridges between services and the State and is working to define when vendor programs will be able to interface.

 

3.      Dr. Johnson indicated that the next work for the committee will be develop a series of categories that reports can be developed from to support providers in assisting in local decisions. The committee plans to review the various reports that are available and pick several that they can use to evaluate the information and to then show the providers how it can be of benefit to them in their everyday service activities. The committee will look at identifying reports that could assist them in service operations, service budget justification, community effectiveness, etc. The committee will proceed with working on this project and bring forward reports as they develop them.

 

CQI – Sub-Committee. Dr. Johnson reported that the committee began meeting   

     again after a hiatus.

 

1.                  EMS Toolkit was reviewed. This looks at ways to take data out of the data bank and generates a report for the EMS Service. It gives direction to the service of ways to compare their information with information for the rest of the state and identifies ways to implement changes for improvement.

 

2.                  Looking at CQI project using info from WARDS.

 

EMS Public Health: Brenda Fellenz, committee chair reported on the following meeting topics:

 

1.      The committee is discussing how to use the various Public Health plans that deal with Pandemic Flu issues so that one constant message can be delivered to EMS providers. The committee would like to develop a template for what can be done to prepare. 

 

2.      Brenda also announced that HRSA has worked on the development of Hospital plans and is developing an EMS plan that will be shared with the committee upon completion of the first draft.

 

3.      Dan advised the Committee and the Board that he had received an EMS specific checklist for service self-evaluation for preparation for Pandemic Flu or other contagious diseases. Dan will be sending that document as well as a general question and answer document out to all EMS services in the next couple of weeks.

 

4.      The committee then discussed injury prevention regarding pediatric falls in ages 0-4.  Nan Peterson presented a template that could be used by EMS Providers. A letter from EMSC was presented to the Board for their review. This will be discussed at the June meeting to look at possibly endorsing this along with EMSC.

 

Disaster – Sub-Committee Mark Fredrickson, committee chair, reported on the

      following meeting topics.

 

1.      Triage Tuesday: Several EMS providers are participating in Triage Tuesday. This project is being provided to help educate EMS providers as well as Hospital personnel in the use of Triage as well as a tracking tool for multiple patients.

 

2.      Triage Tags: The committee is being asked to recommend one tag to be used state wide by all services. The committee will be looking at the California FF tag and will bring forth their recommendation at the next meeting. Any incident with 5 patients or more will trigger the use of triage tags for use by EMS providers.

 

3.      The committee did a survey and inventory of the location of disaster trailer in Wisconsin and the content of the items in the trailers. 30-35 trailers that we know of.  The committee is compiling a list that will be made available to the public.  The committee is working on a grant that would place trailers in various locations across the state for use in mass casualty disasters. More information to follow. 

 

 

EMS Systems: Cal Lintz, committee chair reported on the following meeting topics:

 

1.      Cal reported that the committee meeting was cancelled due to conflicts in meetings as well as the committee is still working on format of the project on working with the Provider Handbook.

 

EMS-C: Dr. Brazelton discussed the work in progress that will result in a stronger interface between EMSC and the working groups of the EMS Advisory Board. More activity will take place in the future meetings.

 

PAC: Dr. Charles Cady, PAC chairperson reported on the following.

Dr. Cady reported that the last meeting was cancelled due to weather related issues. Dr. Cady gave a brief report from the previous meeting, which included the following.

1.      CPAP project data.

2.      Development of a non-visualized airway QI/QA tool to be used by services

3.      Development of a standardized protocol template.

4.      Develop and evaluation tool for the State Medical Director position.

 

State Medical Directors’ Report: State EMS Medical Director, Dr. Keith Wesley gave the following report.

 

1.      Will be working on guidelines and protocols for physical and chemical restraint to be used by services.

 

2.      Will work to contact either by phone or in person every service Medical Director once per year.

 

3.      Develop guidelines for the 2005 AHA standards and how it will effect EMS services and what they need to know and do with their AED protocols.

 

4.      Will work to be available to all EMS stakeholders to help assure broader distribution of EMS information.

 

State Trauma Report: Several people provided information on behalf of Marianne Peck, State Trauma Coordinator.

 

1.      The Trauma Registry will be operational in July of this year. 

2.      The level IV site review process will begin late 2006 or early 2007 with approved evaluators that were selected after application to the formal process.

3.      Request to open HFS-118 to make an adjustment or seek the feasibility of offering waivers to level IV hospitals that request it with regards to the required education program for trauma surgeons.

 

Legislative Issues: Dan Williams advised the Board on several bills that were working through the process that have direct or indirect effect on EMS. None of the proposed bills appeared to have a negative impact on EMS.

 

State Office Issues: Dan announced that Dr. Ken Johnson and Steve Bane had been re-appointed by the Governor to another 3-year term to the EMS Advisory Board. Since the Board meeting it was learned that Travis Teesch has also been re-appointed for another 3-year term.

 

Old Business: Steve Bane advised that an application had been submitted for him to attend a round table discussion on teen driving injury prevention to be held June 21 – 22, 2006.

 

New Business: No new business was brought forward.

 

Other Board Related issues: Cal Lintz announced that NWTC was hosting a Wilderness EMS course to be held August 3 – 7, 2006. For more information contact NWTC.

 

There also was a reminder to all standing committee chairs that standing and sub-committee meeting minutes are due to Dan 15 days after the Board meeting. Agendas for the next meetings should also be submitted with the minutes so that they can be posted on the State website. These should be separate from the minutes.

 

Adjournment:  Motion by Teesch, second by Haase to adjourn. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 2:30 PM.