DELAWARE EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES OVERSIGHT …



DELAWARE EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES OVERSIGHT COUNCIL

MEETING MINUTES

September 23, 2015

The meeting was called to order by Lewis Schiliro, Secretary, Department of Safety and Homeland Security, Summit Aviation Conference Room, 4 Troopers Way, Middletown. Those in attendance were as follows:

Council Members

Joseph Zeroles DVFA

Alan Robinson State Fire Prevention Commission

Ross Megargel State EMS Medical Director

Lawrence Tan New Castle County EMS

Kenneth Dunn Practicing Paramedic

Robert Stuart Sussex County EMS

Colin Faulkner Kent County EMS

Glen Tinkoff Medical Society of DE

Paul Shavack DSP Aviation

Kate Groner DE ACEP (Alt.)

Edwin Cooke DE Police Chiefs Council

Glenn Luedtke Sussex County Member at Large

Mike McMichael DVFA Ambulance Committee

Council Staff

Jacki Poore OEMS (Alt.)

Diane Hainsworth OEMS

Guests in Attendance

Angie Quackenbush OEMS

Warren Jones DVFA

Jerry McNesby Del Tech

Jason Walls Dover AFB

John Buckley Del Tech

Chris Hainsworth Del Tech

Jeffrey Cox SCEMS

Allen Barnes SCEMS

Andy Fulton OEMS

A.J. Shall DEMA

June Sturansky Del Tech

Steve Blessing EMSPS

Ed Klium DIS

I. INTRODUCTIONS

DEMSOC members, staff and guests introduced themselves.

II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The minutes from the May 28, 2015 meeting were reviewed and approved.

III. PUBLIC HEALTH PREPAREDNESS UPDATE

Steve Blessing stated that the office is working on several projects. The office continues to work on objectives for the Ebola grants which are dealing with better coordination of patients and patients flow at hospitals as well as prehospital. The office is working on an operations plan that is basically consistent across the state and in formalized plan that specifically deals with all infectious disease. The office continues to watch Avian Flu and is prepared to assist the department of agriculture if the need arises.

October 21 is the EMS and Preparedness Symposium at Dover Downs.

October 22 the CDC will be onsite to give their annual review of the Strategic National Stockpile. There will be 6 to 8 sessions throughout the day.

IV. NEW BUSINESS

1) Tour-Aviation North

Paul Shavack gave an overview of the new 429 Helicopter. Some of the high lights of the 429:

It is superior to the 407 in apprehension rates, images are much clearer and improves the safety of officers on the ground. The hoist capability is improved, with the 407 they were limited in power and lift, with the 429 lift power is unlimited.

Secretary Shiliro proposed discussion on the concerns of such a big budget item. He encourages the group to come up with ideas on how to get the story out there. Diane Hainsworth suggested that with the 20 year anniversary of the trauma system coming up there is an event in the works for a May timeframe in conjunction with EMS week, we could possibly showcase the 429 during that event.

2) Del-Tech Paramedic Program

Representatives from Delaware Technical Community College reported that there will be a January class. They will have a class January 2016. The original decision to not have the class was based on a reduction in funding. They stressed their concerns with the January class not ending by June 30, when the funding ends. They asked for the counsel’s support in the future to keep the program running as they want to continue to provide the state with quality students graduating from their program. They are looking towards a more long term funding program rather than a year to year funding program.

Diane Hainsworth stated that the Office of EMS created an issue statement, which went to OMB and the legislature, 3 years ago when they first started the additional funding. Ms. Hainsworth stated that the office of EMS would be happy to update that issue statement and release it the members. Del-Tech offered to provide any information needed for that statement.

3) NCC EMS Delivery System Subcommittee Update

Diane Hainsworth stated that the subcommittee has had two meetings thus far. They have identified stressors to the current EMS system, such as overcrowding, wait times and diversion. They are looking at creating a summary of specialty care facilities to potentially expedite care.

They are looking at EMS systems of care and the shortage in the areas of mental health and substance abuse; they are looking to develop a system of care for those areas. They are also looking at Stroke and Cardiac system of care. They are looking at the potential to combine the two and develop a system of care for these areas as well and to combine it to one Cardiovascular system of care.

The group believes this maybe be the time to come forward to the DEMSOC Committee with suggestions on how to update the DEMSOC report to make it into a more usable data report. They are anticipating a written report from Dr. Hong sometime this fall. They hope to share that report at the next DEMSOC meeting.

They believe that the committee is moving in the right direction. They believe that this should possibly be a state wide subcommittee instead of just NCC. The next meeting has yet to be scheduled.

VIII. OLD BUSINESS

1) Agency Reports

Sussex County

The Sussex County EOC currently has no vacancies.

Rehoboth 911 Center relocation: The Rehoboth 911 Center will physically relocate its personnel and operations to the Sussex County 911 Center in Georgetown effective, Monday, 9/21. The City of Rehoboth is constructing a new multi-purpose complex that will include a new 911 Center, Police Department and Conventions Center. The estimated completion date is late summer of 2017.

The County continues to promote its new high-tech tool designed to give first responders critical information about those in need when seconds count. Smart911™ is an online service that allows any Sussex County resident to create a Safety Profile for his or her household and pre-load information in that profile should someone ever need to call 9-1-1. The service, which is completely voluntary and free to use, is unique in that it allows users to control their information, which travels with them wherever they may go in the United States, so long as another jurisdiction uses the Smart911™ program. The service, available at , is especially helpful for people with specialized conditions, young children, or mobile phones, which unlike a home or business, do not have a physical address. Since September 11th, over 1,500 profiles have been created by Sussex County residents in the Smart911 database.

The Sussex EOC is still geared up for the 2015 Hurricane season, which is expected to be similar to last year’s activity by many with nine named storms (7 in 2014), with five being hurricanes, one being a category 3 or above, and three named storms projected for the east coast, if forecasts can be believed. Just in case Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate, a rain dance was held at the recent Pow Wow.

Sussex County EMS currently has one vacancy and has lost no personnel so far in FY2016. They hired three paramedics from our hiring list in July to fill three vacancies and we will be conducting interviews in October and keep a hiring list in place as we begin to experience an upsurge in vacancies over the next year. 16 paramedics are or will be eligible to retire over the next 2 years.

They added expanded Medic 109 coverage for the 2016 summer season. They deployed Medic 109 on weekends through June 6, then daily from June 13 through Labor Day.  This helped them significantly with the seasonal spikes in calls for service in the beach areas when our “normal” system is stressed and travel is next to impossible.

They completed work on a new station in the southeast area of Sussex County currently served by Medic 105 out of Millville. The new station is located on property owned by the County next to the South Coastal Wastewater Facility (SCRWF) in the Ocean View area. A grand opening and open house was held on July 25th and thanks to all who came to celebrate this momentous occasion.

They have purchased land on Plantations Road between Five Points and Rt. 24, and plan to begin construction of a new combined Supervisor/Paramedic Station this fiscal year. The new station will be similar, but larger, to our new stations in Ocean, View, Long Neck and Laurel and will house Paramedic Unit 104 and the East District Supervisor, EMS 100. This facility will replace our current rented space on Rt.1, located in the Storage Solutions Building behind Panera Bread.

To date, through their community outreach programs, SCEMS personnel have taught over 1,100 lay people hands-only CPR.  Additionally, they have taught over 200 Sussex County EMT’s and Firefighters high performance CPR. 

They are finishing up a very busy special events season again this year. They have or expect to participate in or support between 150 and 200 events this year. They will be participating in several emergency preparedness drills, as well as providing paramedic coverage for multiple events throughout September and October.

They supported a large 4th of July celebration weekend with fireworks at Dewey Beach, Bethany Beach and Laurel on the 4th and Rehoboth Beach on the 5th..

Big League and Senior League Softball World Series, a week-long event, was supported at the Pyle Center in Roxana again this year. The games were televised by ESPN on Saturday, August 8th and Sunday, August 9th.

Special Note: September 20, 2015 – Bethany Beach First Responders Triathlon - a 37 y/o male athlete went into cardiac arrest prior to the race starting, as he was walking up to the registration desk. Sussex County Paramedics were at the patient’s side within 10 seconds. The patient was successfully resuscitated and transported to Beebe Healthcare.

They implemented Cornerstone On Demand, a new Learning Management System that will allow us to easily deliver distance education to county employees through an internet based portal. In addition, their classroom education is coordinated and tracked through the LMS. Once fully implemented, the system will also be utilized for Employee Performance Management including competencies and performance appraisals.

To help with command decisions related to cessation of response during inclement weather or storms, they have, with DEMA Homeland Security grants funding, installed a weather station on each of our 10 facilities. The data is viewed locally at the station and broadcasted over the internet. The link to access the information at all of our currently installed locations is:

Kent County

Colin Faulkner reported that they have launched Smart911. It has been working great for them; they have received several calls to the 911 Center from people who have signed up for the program.

They are putting up a unit for their southeast response, it will be a single medic unit housed out of the Frederica area. It is low volume so they are looking at redistricting, it will not be permanent for any one medic they will rotate on a weekly basis.

They had their Family Preparedness Day which was a success. All of the summer’s special events went well.

Practicing Paramedic

Kenny Dunn announced his retirement; he will be retiring October 5. This will be his last meeting.

DVFA Ambulance Committee

Mike McMichael reported that they have a new president of the State EMS Association; her name is Jennifer Knox.

They had their annual awards banquet last week; they had several outstanding award winners. They will recognize Ernest Glen Adams at the next Sussex County meeting in October.

They are looking forward to hearing good news about the CPR assist device “the Lucas”, the grant is still pending. They hope to hear something in October or November.

State Fire Prevention Commission

Alan Robinson reported that the commission met on October 22.

The albuterol project was reported by the BLS Medical Director, he says it is running well.

They discussed their concerns on the new ambulance divisions under Title 1 Section 7-2 BLS operation requirements vehicle patient compartment, the concerns are with the new lift devices that are being required and the cost to install the lift devices.

They also discussed frequent flyers.

Diane Hainsworth asked that if they have a frequent flyer please get as much information as possible and report it to OEMS, so that they can access the situation and turn it over to either Adults & Aging or DESAM.

DVFA

Warren Jones reported that they just completed their conference; he reported that it was very successful.

New Castle County

Larry Tan stated that they are completing the design, engineering and construction phase of the new paramedic station in Odessa. The tentative timeline is: Site prep January 2016, construction to begin around February 2016 with completion as early as December 2016. There will be meeting space and he offered to host a DEMSOC meeting there.

They have an upcoming renewal of accreditation; will be scheduling a site visit in the coming months.

On November 19th and 20th they will be hosting a resuscitation academy, which is designed to get stakeholders together to talk about improving survival rates in cardiac arrest patients. They will be posting more information on their website.

Chief Tan announced the retirement of Kenneth Dunn after 35 years of service.

Office of Preparedness

Steve Blessing spoke on the importance of getting the flu shot early and often with the flu season upon us.

OEMS

Diane Hainsworth stated that the supplemental Ebola grant for HPP is a 5 year grant term. They are looking at a regional system of care for most infectious diseases. They held a meeting at Christiana Care where they rolled out to stakeholders; there will be a meeting at Kent General on September 28. They are currently working on an update on where they are moving with the grant. They are working to improve and update the infectious diseases exposure monitoring program for first responders in EMS.

As of September 1 the drug abuse prevention activities for public health now falls under the Office of EMS. With that came a donation of 2000 Narcan auto injectors which will expire in January 2016. They are currently making them available to EMS and police that wish to participate.

They are in the process of developing a committee for protocol updates.

They are actively working with De-Trac, which is a patient tracking and resource system, the system is rolled out to all but one hospital. It will be used for an MCI or hospital evacuation to better help us in patient tracking and improve communication.

They are currently in discussion with MaryDel on the issue of Maryland medics operating in Delaware. MayDel has agreed to use the DEMRS system.

Andy Fulton reported on the CAD system. The system has been rolled out in Kent County with only a few issues. New Castle County rolled it out with only a few issues also. In general it appears to be going well; one major issue which is being worked on by Imagetrend is it being EMS based and fire service ambulances not showing up in the system. All issues are being addressed. Sussex County budget has been approved and they will be contracting with TriTec for their live CAD feed.

Medical Director

Ross Megargel stated that the American Heart Association is coming out with new recommendations in October. They are looking to convene a group late fall or early winter to review the standing orders. Some of the topics to be discussed would be interest in combining ALS & BLS into one flow sheet per standing order and interest in developing critical care transport regulations using national and local standards.

There are new card sets coming out for dispatch. They are currently using version 12.3, going to 13. Release date is expected to be October 1. They will be meeting to update their responses to those cards.

DMOST passed and was signed by the governor in June. Public Health is meeting to draft regulations; the goal is a go live date of January 1.

They are looking to hire a new associate medical director for New Castle County. There is a list being made and interviews will occur over the next couple of months.

He spoke on the concerns that Pedi-sleeves have been purchased, we are a broslow state. He recommends when purchasing anything with dosages that the medical directors be contacted and approve before purchasing.

DSP

Paul Shavack stated that they have been planning and preparing for the upcoming papal visit. They are increasing helicopter coverage up north in response to increased traffic and train travel. The 429’s are equipped with microwave download technology which gives the ability to download video directly to each EOC and command post.

Post papal visit they will be working on a program with each EOC to train people to use that equipment on the ground.

Medical Society

Glenn Tinkoff reported that their annual meeting is coming up in November.

He reported that the trauma system committee met in September. They discussed the new addition of resources for optimum care of the patient, referring to the green book now the orange book. He reported that Christiana Hospital Level 1 trauma center and Kent General Level 3 center will be going under review under the new orange book.

There are two statewide trauma protocols evolving; one for reversal of anticoagulants and one for cerebral vascular injury.

The American College of Surgeons through a Hartford consensus meeting has developed a 2 and half hour course that is basic lifesaving intervention (kin to CPR) including breathing control and opening an airway. The course is meant for non-physician and non-EMT personnel such as teachers and the public.

Police Chiefs Council

Edwin Cooke reported that the tactical medical program has been expanded throughout the state. He would like to include medics and EMT’s in the active shooter response training. He is looking at the three counties to present their programs to the police chief’s council so that he can make a recommendation to include them in the active shooter training.

He expressed concerns of funding issues for police departments that are choosing to train their personnel to administer Narcan in the field. The issue is being addressed through the grant writing process.

VIIII. PUBLIC COMMENT

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download