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News From The Front Line April 4, 2011

The MEDIC Dispatch

Medic’s 2011 Stars of Life Recipients

The Stars of Life is an annual

program administered by the

American Ambulance

Association. The program is

intended to recognize the top

performers from EMS Agencies

throughout the country. Medic

has historically participated in

the Stars of Life program and

sent top employees from this

Agency each year to their spring

conference in Washington DC.

This year, the Employee

Recognition Committee

thoroughly vetted the

commendation database in

addition to assessing information provided in the top employee performance reviews from the

past year as provided by the HR department. Later, members of the Lead Team helped to

further narrow down the list of candidates. This was a very thorough yet difficult task, with

many, many worthy employees were considered. When all was said and done, however, only

three names remained.

Please join Medic’s Leadership Team in congratulating this year’s Stars of Life representatives

from Medic: Operations/BLS Cathy Jordan; IT Virgil Leggett and NET

Coordinator Jamie Stanford.

Cathy, Virgil and Jamie are outstanding co-workers and set a solid example by the way they go

about their jobs here at Medic. The Agency’s Leadership Team is very proud to have each of

them representing Medic at this year’s Stars of Life Conference in Washington DC, which is

taking place May 1st—4th, 2011.

The 2011 Stars of Life recipients were selected based on your submissions to the Employee

Recognition Team. We would like to thank everyone for their participation and submissions.

Please congratulate Cathy, Virgil and Jamie on their hard work and well deserved recognition.

This Week:

From the Desk of

Barry Bagwell 2

The Official Launch

of OMEGA 3

FINAL Performance

Pay Data—2nd

Tracking Period

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Focused Cardiac

Arrest 5

April Birthdays 6

Salute to Heroes

Game 7

Training Schedule 8

Mecklenburg

EMS

Agency

Dates to

Remember:

April 3rd

Medic Night

Time Warner Cable

Arena

1800—2200

April 9th

Salute to Heroes

Hockey Game

Starts at 1700

(from left to right): 2011 Stars of Life Recipients, Paramedic Crew Chief Cathy

Jordan, NET Coordinator Jamie Stanford and IT/Systems Engineer Virgil Leggett are

congratulated by Medic Executive Director, Joe Penner after being selected as this

year’s winners.

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Please be advised that the part-time roster is full and there are currently no

available part-time positions.

Moving forward, any full-time Medic employee seeking part-time status will need to

submit a written request to their assigned supervisor. Your name will be placed on

a waiting list and you will be notified if and when a part-time opening becomes

available.

Medic is currently in the process of reviewing its requirements for part-time

personnel including the number of monthly hours required (the required hours per

month will not increase) as well as guidelines for transferring from full-time to part-

time status and vice versa.

Mandatory meetings for all current Medic part-time employees will be scheduled during the

month of April. Please be on the lookout for further communications announcing the exact dates

and times.

The purpose of the mandatory meetings will be to hear from Medic part-time employees including feedback as to what is

working well, what is not working well and looking at current rules for part-time Medic employees.

If you have any questions about the upcoming meetings or the part-time waiting list, please contact Keith Overcash

(A-Shift) at ext. 6250 or via e-mail at keitho@medic911.com or Bob Francis (B-Shift) at ext. 6251 or via e-mail at

bobf@medic911.com.

Thank you.

From the Desk of Barry Bagwell—Medic Part-Time Positions

There has been an isolated instance in which the batteries on the PHILIPS MRX monitor have quickly lost their charge.

This occurred approximately one hour after the crew checked the status of the batteries, one showing five lights the other

four lights. We are working with PHILIPS to identify the cause of this failure. Again, this is an isolated instance.

If you should experience a battery failure, the AC charging unit for the MRX is located in the pediatric cabinet of the truck.

The AC charging unit should be placed in the A slot of the MRX, please remove the faulty battery prior to placing the AC

charging unit. It can then be plugged into any electrical outlet or run by the onboard inverter on the units. Notify the on

duty Supervisor of the monitor failure and request a second truck be dispatched by CMED. After completion of the call

BOTH the PHILIPS monitor and the faulty battery along with a detailed Lost & Damaged report should be turned in to

Support Services for investigation by PHILIPS as to the cause.

Logistics is currently exploring the possibility of placing three MRX batteries on each unit prior to deployment; however,

they must first ensure this will not affect their ability to supply fully charged batteries for shift deployment.

If you have any questions feel free to contact Steve Vandeventer at 980.406.1220 or via e-mail at stevenv@medic911.com

or Bryan Edwards at 704-943-6130 or via e-mail at bryane@medic911.com.

PHILIPS MRX Notification

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During February InService, a communication was made on

launching the OMEGA protocol. Last Friday marked the

official launch date of the protocol. After four years of

research at Medic, the program is up and running!

Medic leadership, along with our hospital partners and the

County, held a press conference on April 1st to clearly

explain the program and the new option offered to patients

with minor injuries or illnesses. All local news stations, as

well as the Charlotte Observer were in attendance.

The PR Department will gather all the segments and the

Observer piece for employees to view. An announcement

will be made in the Dispatch once the media segments are

posted to the website and MedTV. Please also be sure to

check out our website about the launch of OMEGA at

www.medic911.com/omega_program/.

If you have any questions about the OMEGA protocol,

please contact Barry Bagwell at ext. 6170 or via e-mail at

barryb@medic911.com.

The Official Launch of OMEGA

March has been a busy month for Medic's Medical Journal

and ECG Club. A meeting was held for B-shift on March 7th

and we reviewed a wide range of ECG's, including

hyperkalemia, atrial fibrillation with WPW, and a variety of

uncommon but life-threatening 12-lead findings.

A-Shift met on March 18th and we reviewed two journal

articles originating from MEDIC: Association Between

Prehospital Time Intervals and STEMI System Performance,

from Circulation, and The Association Between

Prehospital Endotracheal Intubation Attempts and Survival

to Hospital Discharge Among Out-of-hospital Cardiac

Arrest Patients, from Academic Emergency Medicine.

Two more meetings have been planned for this spring. The

next Medical Journal and ECG Club meeting has been set

for this Thursday, April 7th at 1:00 pm at the Flying

Saucer, with one more meeting to follow in May. As

always, all are welcome to attend. Please e-mail Mike

Sherriff at mikes@medic911.com if you are interested in

attending.

Next Medical Journal & ECG

Exciting changes are taking

place at Medic as

we prepare to go live with

phase one of the BLS 911

units. Currently, 16 of

Medic's finest EMT's are in

the second week of an intensive EMT-Crew Chief class.

Participants are reviewing the EMT curriculum, learning

their new roles at Medic and getting lots of hands-

on experience in lab. Students will be starting their field

ride time on Tuesday April 12th and are scheduled to be

deployed in the system on May 17th.

Please congratulate our newest EMT Crew Chiefs as

they begin their new roles and lead the way in these

changes at Medic!

Medic’s EMT-Crew Chief Class

Approximately 130 Medic employees viewed the Shift Bid

Employee Input presentation. The presentation was

designed to address your recommendations, questions and

suggestions to the upcoming Shift Bid process.

The Operations department would like to take a moment

to recognize the hard work and efforts of Operations

Manager – Communications, Todd Sims and Supervisor of

Scheduling and Deployment, Bryan Runyan. Both have

worked tirelessly to inform Medic field staff of changes to

the shift bid process as well gather important feedback

from employee input sessions.

Please visit the link below for a full, detailed summary of the

2011 Medic Shift Bid Employee Input sessions. Responses to

your recommendations, suggestions and questions appear

in italics.

www.medic911.com/shift_bid

From the Desk of Barry Bagwell

(from left to right) EMTs Bill Woods, Chris Alaimo, Beth Hill,

Katie Pike and instructor Jerry Morris take part in a pediatric

trauma scenario as part of the EMT-Crew Chief class training.

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Medic’s (Civil Emergency Unit ) CEU team is a growing elite force of specially-trained paramedics

partnered with CMPD to provide care to officers and civilians encountered in potentially dangerous

situations such as protests, riots or demonstrations. Since joining the ranks of Charlotte-Mecklenburg

Police Department’s CEU in 2006, this team of top-performing Paramedics continues to assist law

enforcement officers by providing medical care during large scale events or in situations of civil

disturbance.

After a tremendous amount of intensive introductory training, the newest members of Medic’s CEU team have completed

the requirements and are officially among the ranks of this elite team. Please join Team Leader, Charles Horne in

welcoming the newest members of Medic’s CEU team:

Kariena (K.C.) Bernesser

Alan Elam

Robert Graf

Malcolm Leirmoe

Gabriel (Gabe) McGaha

Thomas Nagel

William Walton

Welcome Our Newest CEU Team Members!

The patient satisfaction data from the second tracking

period is officially in and 64% of Medic’s patients rated our

service as being excellent. In line with our commitment

when the program started, unfortunately, there will be no

payout for this second tracking period as we did not meet

our target goal of 68% excellent for patient satisfaction.

To this end, Medic has formed a central work team to help

better understand what drives patient satisfaction. The

research this team does will directly impact Medic’s patient

satisfaction tracking process. Approximately, 20 letters of

interest from employees from field, CMED and

administrative staff were submitted QI Systems Analyst,

Michelle Correll. As the project leader for this team,

Michelle will be contacting each interested individual this week for follow-up. Please note there are only six spaces available

on the work team, but there will be opportunity for each person interested to participate in discussions during the

process. Selections will be made based on commitment to the project and availability to meet each week.

All Medic employees are encouraged to stay focused on the patient, communicate in a thoughtful way with everyone you

engage with and remember that how we are perceived on each and every call will translate into our patient satisfaction

scores down the road.

FINAL Performance Pay Data—2nd Tracking Period

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Over the last 12 months there have been very positive comments from both the Fire Department and MEDIC personnel

regarding the focused cardiac arrest protocol. Our survival rates continue to be among the best in the country and all

employees should be proud of this accomplishment. Two areas of improvement were identified during this month’s cardiac

arrest quality assurance meeting.

Recent research has indicated that quality chest compressions are one of the most important components of

successful cardiac arrest resuscitation. Data has also demonstrated that adequate compressions can only be delivered by

one person for approximately 2 minutes; QCPR data from our system back these findings. Therefore, it is imperative

that the basic EMT or the 2nd paramedic relieve the FFI of chest compressions after placing the cardiac

monitor. This was designed to give the FFI a break from compressions in advance of transporting the patient. It has been

reported that this is not occurring on a regular basis. Fire Captains and MEDIC crew chiefs are asked to keep the quality of

chest compressions being delivered in mind. This may mean that you have to switch rescuers more frequently to maintain

quality.

After the delivery of quality chest compression, decreasing time off chest, or the amount of time CPR is not being

delivered during a defibrillation attempt, is the next most important component of successful resuscitations.

As such we should strive to limit our time off the chest as much as possible. Our QCPR data shows time from CPR stop

to defibrillation delivery averages 17.3 seconds with total time off chest for defibrillation near 30 seconds. When using a

manual defibrillator and good communication it should be possible to cut these numbers at least in half. Remember that the

person doing chest compressions should be delivering the defibrillation when using the AED and this practice was put into

place to limit the time off the chest. Also, pulse and rhythm checks should be performed only after two minutes of CPR

from the time the defibrillation was delivered and should be kept to a minimum 5-10 seconds.

If you have any questions, please fee free to contact Steve Vandeventer at 980.406.1220 or via e-mail at

stevenv@medic911.com.

Focused Cardiac Arrest

Due to the unusual circumstances

surrounding the February 2011 InService,

the Learning & Development department

has added 2 additional dates of makeup

InService for February and March.

MARCH Makeup InService

April 20 (Wed) 0800-1200

April 27 (Wed) 1200-1600

FEBRUARY Makeup InService April 20 (Wed) 1200-1600

April 27 (Wed) 0800-1200

**Medic InService WILL NOT be held during the

month of April.** Please contact a member of the

Learning & Development department if you have any

questions. Thank you.

Medic InService Notifications

Benevolent Committee openings for new Committee

members. Meetings are held monthly or bi-monthly with

days / times varying to meet attendees schedules. If

anyone is interested in joining the committee, please

submit email of interest to Corinne Walser at

corinner@medic911.com by COBD Wednesday, April

20. If any questions, please give Corinne a call at

704.943.6242.

Interest in Benevolent Committee?

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We would like to extend special birthday wishes to the following employees celebrating a birthday in the month of April:

Happy Birthday!

Medic is now online with the National Registry of EMT’s

website.

If you are nationally registered the Learning & Development

department can add your continuing education classes

automatically to your profile and all of your recertification

can be done on line with no paperwork. If you are

nationally registered, please go to www.NREMT.org and set

up your profile.

If you have any questions, please contact Sam Barnes,

Education/Quality Specialist at 704.943.6143. or via e-mail

at samb@medic911.com

National Registry of EMT’s

Online Anatomy & Physiology

April 4th – May 30th

This class will meet

the NCOEMS

requirement for

entry into a paramedic program

Call 704.330.4223 to register

Online Instructor Methodology

April 4th—April 25th

This class will meet the NCOEMS requirement for EMS

level one instructor application. The class will meet in

the classroom on:

04/04, 04/18, 04/25

North Campus room CJ119

Call 704.330.4223 to register, the class code is

EMT-7003-01

CPCC Course Offerings

Alan Elam April 1

Eric Bitler April 6

Matthew Johnson April 6

Tia Dida April 7

Robert Owens April 8

John Stroup April 8

Jay Black April 9

Travis Williams April 9

Colby Willison April 10

Cindy Griffin April 12

Michael Stratton April 12

Amber Brock April 13

Treven Cherry April 13

Todd Sims April 13

Harley Conrad April 14

Hannah Gompers April 14

Debbie Parrish April 15

William Thomas April 15

Steven Ward April 15

Tina Robedee April 16

Johnny Tompkins April 16

Sanders Guignard April 17

Katie Currin April 18

Daniel Hueschen April 18

Samuel Barnes April 20

Abby Jones April 21

Katie Spitzmiller April 21

Janine Curlee April 22

Susan Davis April 26

Don Singer April 26

Tom Wright April 26

Don Shue April 27

Randall McKown April 29

Rebekah Hart-

O’Sullivan

April 30

Nichole Washington April 26

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Be sure to mark your calendars and join us for the 6th annual Salute

to Heroes game on Saturday, April 9th at Time Warner Cable

Arena.

The cost of game tickets are $10 or $20, depending on seating.

You get two games for the price of one! First, there is the

Charlotte Checkers game. During the Checkers game, there will be

several special activities in place to honor and recognize our

outstanding employees.

The second game is where we take to the ice!

Come support Medic and the Charlotte Fire Department as they

prepare to reclaim their championship title against the Charlotte

-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) and the Mecklenburg

County Sheriff’s Office.

To purchase your Salute to Heroes tickets, please contact Kristin

Young at kristiny@medic911.com or ext. 6165 or Nikkie Perry at

nikkiep@medic911.com or ext. 6178 in the PR department. Thank

you.

Salute to Heroes Game

First Responder Discounts

Showcase Medic to your favorite non-profit, community

organization or school by scheduling a Medic Tour!

Medic Tours can be scheduled through the PR department

and provide an up-close and personal view of Medic from

inside an ambulance, to how we operate, CMED and the

large volume of response assets we have available at any

given time.

Please note Medic Tours are being conducted in lieu of the

current Demo Program suspension. The Demo

Program has been suspended due to the tight fiscal

budget and reduced overtime budgets. In addition,

off-the-clock use of Medic units/assets has also been

restricted due to labor law and liability issues associated

with off-duty employees using vehicles for personal, non-

agency related business.

If you have any questions about scheduling a Medic Tour

or the current Demo Program suspension, please contact

Community Relations Coordinator, Nikkie Perry at

nikkiep@medic911.com or ext. 6178. Thank you.

Medic Tours

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Visit Us on the Web!

www.medic911.com

MEDIC Mecklenburg EMS Agency

4525 Statesville Road

Charlotte, NC 28269

Tel: 704-943-6000

Fax: 704-943-6001

In-Service

Training

Medic Events

Holidays

Recertification Testing

Medic Calendar

2011 Training Schedule

AHA Refresher Class Schedule at CPCC

CPR

JUL - 18 (EMT 7402 05), 20 (EMT 7402 07) 1300—1700

19 (EMT 7402 06), 21 (EMT 7402 08) 1800—2200

OCT - 17 (EMT 7402 09), 19 (EMT 7402 11) 1300—1700

18 (EMT 7402 10), 20 (EMT 7402 12) 1800—2200

PALS

AUG - 22 (EMT 7208 05), 24 (EMT 7208 07) 1300—1700

23 (EMT 7208 06), 25 (EMT 7208 08) 1800—2200

ACLS

SEPT - 19 (EMT 7207 05) , 21 (EMT 7207 07) 1300—1700

20 (EMT 7207 06) , 22 (EMT 7207 08) 1800—2200

PRE-REGISTRATION IS MANDATORY FOR ALL CLASSES. ALL AHA CLASSES HELD AT CPCC.

April 2011 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 B

Rotary Scholarship

Application Deadline

2 B

3 B

Medic Night at the Bobcats Arena

1800—2200

4 A

5 A

6 B 7 B

8 A

9 A

Salute to Heroes

Hockey Game

Starts at1900

10 A

11 B

12 B

13 A

14A

15 B

16 B

17 B

18 A

19 A

20 B

March Makeup InService

0800—1200 Feb Makeup InService

1200—1600

21 B

22 A

Good Friday Holiday

Medic Offices Closed

23 A

24 A

25 B

26 B 27 A

Feb Makeup InService 0800—1200

March Makeup InService

1200—1600

28 A 29 B 30 B

Important Notes about 2011 AHA

Refresher Classes at CPCC

To register, call CPCC at 704.330.4223

All classes will be held at CPCC’s CENTRAL

CAMPUS in the BELK Building.

Actual classroom number will be given at time of pre-

registration

A minimum of 10 students is required for each class.

ACLS & PALS classes will only be HELD TWICE A

YEAR

PALS will be held in the months of FEB & AUG

ACLS will be held in the months of MAR & SEPT

There will be NO CPR Classes in APRIL