JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

‘Being a Paramedic is My True Love’
Jerry Smith Globe Gazette, Mason City, Iowa (MCT) Beth Aschenbrenner likes to get to know her patients. The paramedic for the Clear Lake Fire Department says she asks those she is transporting probing questions because she truly wants to know the person she is helping get through a bad day. She also believes the conversation is a good coping mechanism for those taking the ambulance ride. “I love older people and love being able to talk to them and hear their stories,” said Aschenbrenner, who has been an EMT/paramedic for 25 years. “We can learn so much from them. Where they gr...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - December 21, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: News News Feed Spotlight Paramedic Source Type: news

Are New Coronavirus Strains Cause for Concern?
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE AP Chief Medical Writer Reports from Britain and South Africa of new coronavirus strains that seem to spread more easily are causing alarm, but virus experts say it’s unclear if that’s the case or whether they pose any concern for vaccines or cause more severe disease. Viruses naturally evolve as they move through the population, some more than others. It’s one reason we need a fresh flu shot each year. New variants, or strains, of the virus that causes COVID-19 have been seen almost since it was first detected in China nearly a year ago. On Saturday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson ann...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - December 21, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: AP News Coronavirus Source Type: news

Firefighters Next in Line for Vaccine
By JOHN HANNA and MIKE STOBBE Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A federal advisory panel recommended Sunday that people 75 and older and essential workers like firefighters, teachers and grocery store workers should be next in line for COVID-19 shots, while a second vaccine began rolling out to hospitals as the nation works to get the coronavirus pandemic under control. The two developments came amid a vaccination program that began only in the last week and has given initial shots to about 556,000 Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - December 21, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: AP News Coronavirus Medicine Source Type: news

COVID-Relief Grants Available to Westmoreland (PA) EMS
Rich Cholodofsky Tribune-Review, Greensburg, Pa. (MCT) Twenty-one nonprofit emergency medical service departments are in line to receive $15,000 COVID-relief grants as part of a new round of awards unveiled Thursday by Westmoreland County commissioners. Officials said nearly $400,000 remaining from grants earmarked for nonprofit agencies will be used to fund the program. “We are under a tight timeline. They will be getting an application today and will have 48 hours to complete it and get it back to us so we can approve it next week,” Commissioner Gina Cerilli said. Money for those...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - December 20, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: Administration and Leadership Coronavirus News News Feed EMS Pennsylvania Source Type: news

Tampa Bay ’s First Responders Get Early Vaccine Access. Will They Take It?
Kathryn Varn Tampa Bay Times (MCT) Florida’s first COVID-19 vaccine doses landed in Tampa Bay this week, poised for distribution to the people public health officials determined need it first. Millions of healthcare workers and the residents of long-term care facilities will get vaccinated first. Next up will be essential workers, including firefighters, paramedics and police officers. But when it’s their turn, will Tampa Bay’s first-responders get the shot? A significant number of firefighters and officers said they weren’t interested or were undecided, according to surveys of local fir...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - December 19, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: Coronavirus News News Feed Florida Medicine Source Type: news

COVID-19 Models Plot Dire Scenarios for California Hospitals
By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — When Gov. Gavin Newsom provided a dire view of California’s out-of-control surge of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations this week, he referred to projection models of future death and misery that he said were becoming “alarmingly” more accurate. If true, then over the next four weeks the state’s hospitals could be overflowing with 75,000 patients — about five times the current level — and an average of 400 people will die every day. Hospitals were on the brink of being overrun with nearly 15,000 patients with COVID-19 when Newsom made the announc...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - December 18, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: AP News Coronavirus Ambulance California Diversion Hospital Source Type: news

NY Motorist Rescued after 10 Hours in Car Buried by Snow Plow
By JIM MUSTIAN Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — A man who drove off the road in this week’s snowstorm spent 10 hours trapped in his car after a passing plow buried it, finally managing to get a 911 call through and being rescued in the nick of time by a New York state trooper. Kevin Kresen, 58, of Candor, drove off the road in the town of Owego and became “plowed in by a truck,” state police said. “If he was in there for another hour his body temperature would have gone lower, and I’m convinced he wouldn’t have made it,” State Police Sgt. Jason Cawley, who rescued the man, said in an in...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - December 18, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: AP News Rescue & Vehicle Extrication New York Source Type: news

NJ EMTs Accused of Punching Patient. They Say He Was the Aggressor.
Kevin Shea nj.com (MCT) New Jersey health authorities have suspended the certifications of three emergency medical technicians on accusations they assaulted a combative patient by punching him several times while in the back of an ambulance in Jersey City this summer. When the EMTs were later interviewed by their employer, RWJBarnabas Health, they denied striking the patient during the July 4, 2020 incident. However, each admitted in a second interview that they indeed punched the patient, according to the state’s Office of Emergency Medical Services, in the Department ...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - December 18, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: News News Feed Assault EMS EMT New Jersey Source Type: news

AR Paramedics in Stable Condition after Shooting
The two Emergency Ambulance Service (AR) paramedics shot several times while on a call are recovering, the service’s CEO said. Pine Bluff Police said the it began early Wednesday when paramedics responded to help a woman who had been hit by her boyfriend, KARK-TV reports. The boyfriend, Kevin Curl jr., 22, started an argument that ended with him shooting at the providers. Related Two AR Paramedics Shot, One Returns Fire and Kills SuspectProtecting EMS Personnel from AssaultSome Florida Paramedics Now Carry Guns on SWAT TeamsArmed Tactical EMS Team Responds with SWAT in Hot Zones One of the paramedics shot bac...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - December 18, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: News News Videos Arkansas EMS Paramedic Shooting Source Type: news

FDNY EMS Responders Eligible for COVID-19 Vaccine Next Week, Firefighters to Follow
According to a report from the New York Daily News, the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine will be available to New York City emergency medical technicians and paramedics beginning Wednesday, December 23. Fire Department of New York (FDNY) firefighters will then be eligible to get their shots starting on Tuesday, December 29, according to a memo issued to FDNY employees. The FDNY is not requiring frontline employees to take the vaccine, but it is strongly recommending it. EMS union head Oren Brazilay said that the union recognizes the importance of EMTs and paramedics receiving the vaccine first. He also noted that four EMTs h...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - December 18, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: Coronavirus News Source Type: news

EMS Personnel Experience Substantial Exposure to COVID-19 Patients in Confined Spaces, ESO Data Show
ESO, a data and software company serving emergency medical services (EMS), fire departments, hospitals, and state EMS offices today shared insights from more than 9,900 EMS encounters for patients diagnosed with COVID-19 that occurred between October 1 to November 30, 2020. Data are from the ESO Data Collaborative. The data show EMS personnel, on average, spend more than 30 minutes with each COVID-19 patient, of which an average of 15 of these minutes take place during the transport period of an encounter in the back of an ambulance, often a confined, poorly ventilated space. According to industry standards, the typical...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - December 18, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: Coronavirus News ESO Source Type: news

Vice President Pence, Wife Karen, Surgeon General get COVID-19 Vaccines
By ZEKE MILLER and JILL COLVIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence was vaccinated for COVID-19 on Friday in a live-television event aimed at reassuring Americans the vaccine is safe. In remarks after his shot, Pence called the speed with which the vaccine was developed “a medical miracle.” “The American people can be confident: we have one and perhaps within hours two” safe vaccines,” Pence said, referring to expected FDA approval for Moderna’s vaccine. Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine was the first to be approved. “Building confidence in the vaccine is what brings us here t...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - December 18, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: AP News Coronavirus Source Type: news

Agencies Pivot Patient Care Response Resources amid the COVID-19 Pandemic
A mobile integrated healthcare (MIH) program in Sacramento County (CA) under development to be implemented as an alternative model for response to low-acuity calls and high utilizers of emergency services was quickly brought to an operational status. It was then redesigned and redirected to serve a new purpose as the COVID-19 pandemic struck northern California and challenged patients’ access to appropriate healthcare. Upon the outbreak of COVID-19, three Sacramento-area fire departments joined forces with local hospitals to rapidly mobilize a MIH program to deliver patient-centric care, testing and education to out-o...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - December 18, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: Community Paramedicine and Mobile Health Exclusives Patient Care California EMT Hospital Mobile Integrated Healthcare Source Type: news

1 in 5 Prisoners in the U.S. Has Had COVID-19, 1,700 Have Died
BETH SCHWARTZAPFEL and KATIE PARK of The Marshall Project and ANDREW DEMILLO of The Associated Press LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — One in every five state and federal prisoners in the United States has tested positive for the coronavirus, a rate more than four times higher than the general population. In some states, more than half of prisoners have been infected, according to data collected by The Associated Press and The Marshall Project. As the pandemic enters its 10th month — and as the first Americans begin to receive a long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine — at least 275,000 prisoners have been infected, more than 1,7...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - December 18, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: AP News Coronavirus Source Type: news

Two AR Paramedics Shot, One Returns Fire and Kills Suspect
Update: Both paramedics were listed in stable condition on Thursday after surgery, according to CBS 5. Two paramedics with Emergency Ambulance Service (AR) were shot and a suspect is dead following a shooting early Thursday morning, according to reports. Police say it happened 1400 block of West 23rd Avenue in Pine Bluff, roughly 40 miles south of Little Rock, deltaplexnews.com reports. Police say the paramedics were working on a patient, when a bystander pulled out the gun and fired on both paramedics. One of the paramedics then pulled out a gun and shot the suspect. Related Protecting EMS Personnel from...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - December 17, 2020 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: JEMS Staff Tags: News Arkansas Paramedic Shooting Source Type: news