4th Webinar in a Series: COVID-19 EMS Patient Management: Myth vs. Reality | Recording and Handout
This joint webinar of PCC, AIMHI, IAED, NAEMT, CAA, and FirstWatch was the 4th in a series. We were proud to see that over 1,300 people registered for it.
With Matt Zavadsky from MedStar moderating, our presenters for Solano County, California were Dr. Bela Matyas from Solano County Public Health, Ted Selby from Solano County EMS, and Jimmy Pierson from Medic Ambulance. They provided incredibly useful and practical information from their ongoing experience providing care for COVID-19 patients quarantined at Travis Air Base. One example of insight shared is how they balanced the needs of the community for EMS coverage with the risk of infection. This is discussed a few times during the webinar, but initially at 32:30 in the recording.
Click here to view the recording from the WebEx Site.
Click here to view the recording from YouTube.
Click here for a pdf of the slides.
The next (5th) COVID-19 Webinar in our PCC/IAED/FirstWatch series will be: Thursday, March 26th at 10:30am PT/12:30pm CT/1:30pm ET. Click here.
For additional real-world first responder-specific information on COVID-19, please visit our FirstWatch Health Intelligence page at firstwatch.net/hi. Once there, you can also sign up for alerts to be notified when new information is added.
FirstWatch has provided near-real-time data surveillance for Public Safety since 1998, and today we monitor over 120,000 calls per day from over 500 agencies, who serve 40% of the population of the U.S. and Canada. We have monitored data for influenza-like illness (ILI), SARS, H1N1, MERS, Ebola, and now COVID-19. We created our first COVID-19 trigger in January for our customers in Snohomish County, Washington, who transported the 1st U.S. case of COVID-19. Click here to view our 1st PCC COVID-19 webinar held February 3rd, where they shared their experience and lessons learned.
Since then we’ve created custom FirstWatch triggers for over 50 agencies that automatically monitor their CAD, ProQA, and ePCR data in near-real-time, including Middlesex London Paramedic Service, who recently shared this great feedback:
“We have been a FirstWatch customer for the past year and have been continuously impressed with their ability to help us maximize our responses and create efficiencies within our service.
In addition to the analytic tools, we have been able to create special hazard and paramedic safety notifications that help us improve the safety of our paramedics and responders. As COVID-19 began to emerge we instinctively turned to FirstWatch to help us design an alert that would help us increase the safety of paramedics.
FirstWatch was able to work with us to design a custom alert that immediately notifies supervisors when paramedics are responding to a call that could result in a potential exposure.
We have found this trigger to be effective and immediate. We have had several recent instances in which this FirstWatch trigger was able to alert our supervisors of a potential COVID-19 exposure BEFORE the paramedics arrived on scene. The supervisors were able to communicate this information to the crews, augmenting their protection and reducing their chance of exposure.
We are incredibly thankful for this alert system and for the dedication of the FirstWatch team.”
Adam Bennett BA AEMCA ASM, Commander (A), Middlesex-London Paramedic Service
For more information on how FirstWatch can help your organization, please visit firstwatch.net/what-we-do.
Presenters:
- Bela T. Matyas, MD, MPH, Health Officer / Deputy Director, Solano County Public Health
- James Pierson, President / COO, Medic Ambulance Service, Vice President, California Ambulance Association
- Ted Selby, Agency Administrator, Solano County Emergency Medical Services
Hosting Organizations:
- Academy of International Mobile Healthcare Integration (AIMHI)
- National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians (NAEMT)
- California Ambulance Association (CAA)
- Paramedic Chiefs of Canada (PCC)
- International Academies of Emergency Dispatch (IAED)
- FirstWatch
