Emergency Medical Services Intervals and Survival in Trauma - Assessment of the “Golden Hour”
on Nov 20, 2009 in research Heresy There is a very important paper due to be published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.[1] I expect that there will be a lot of criticism of this paper. There will be many reasons for being cautious in implementing the suggestions of the authors, bu...

Zero Tolerance For Bad Behavior
on Nov 19, 2009 in ethics Heresy Critical Judgment TJC/JCAHO (The Joint Commission/the Joint Commission for Accrediting Healthcare Organizations) decided that it would expand its influence in hospitals. While the problem they address is real, their solutions are as unrealistic as ever.According to th...

Going Against The Conventional Ignorance - I
on Nov 17, 2009 in Conventional Ignorance Heresy Critical Judgment This is about an example of decision making in sports. No, I am not going to start commenting on sports regularly, besides the EMS relevance is in here, just farther down. I have not followed football since the 70's. However, there is a lot of critic...

Toxicology Conundrum #022 - Life in the Fast Lane
on Nov 14, 2009 in Education Critical Judgment Life in the Fast Lane is a blog by a bunch of Australian doctors. They give an interesting rationale for creating their blog - Life in the Fast Lane was born out of an intense desire to procrastinate..Our team was born out of passionate (and usually...

An Apt Metaphor
on Nov 14, 2009 in Education At Life under the Lights there is a very nice example of a difference between teaching methods. On the one hand, and it turns out to be a dirty hand in this metaphor, is training. Training is all that the supporters of cross-training think EMS needs.

T G I Friday the 13th
on Nov 13, 2009 in movies Mythology This is the third Friday the 13th of this year.[1] Numerologists and other superstitious people probably will attach some meaning to that. There is none. For many people, Friday is the end of the work week. For that reason it may be different from ot...

Magic Sirens Prevent Ambulance Drivers From Hitting Things
on Nov 13, 2009 in Mythology Heresy Critical Judgment FireGeezer writes[1] about a news article claiming that sirens prevent accidents.[2] Since I just wrote about Friday the 13th and 2012, why not give this non sequitur some abuse, too.Sirens probably are important in getting the attention of other dri...

Critical Incident Stress Debriefing and Mythology
on Nov 10, 2009 in Heresy Critical Judgment As with the rest of the alternative medicine I write about, there are other fields that have alternative practitioners. Psychology is one. Recently, there was an excellent article on a topic that is near and dear to the hearts of EMS - Stress Debrief...

March of Dimes and Jennifer Lopez Encourage Adult Vaccination for Pertussis
on Nov 9, 2009 in ethics Vaccines The second video starts out with no sound for 22 seconds, just a title card - Clinical Examples of Pertussis. However, once it gets started, it gives several examples of whooping cough, for those who may not be familiar with whooping cough. Expect to...

TOTWTYTR - EMS 2.0, Again
on Nov 6, 2009 in Heresy Critical Judgment Too Old To Work, Too Young To Retire has a nice post on EMS 2.0, but from a slightly different perspective - EMS 2.0, Again - Or "Ten Tools that Basic EMTs Need". Before you start reading and get all kinds of upset about these things needing ALS, sto...