ds15

Thanks everyone for the replies. I agree that pagers would be the best solution to this problem, but for a number of reasons that is not financially practical for this group. I will continue to look into the mass texting/emailing to cell phones route. Thanks again for the advice.

Hello all - I work with a group of volunteer EMS providers - generally about 50 individuals at any given time. We are exploring ways of notifying the entire department quickly and easily in case of a major incident. Currently we use a "phone tree" approach, which is not really ideal. I'm looking at some of the web-based mass text messaging/SMS services. The services I looked at in general seem to be reasonably prices (around 5cents/message) and appear to be reputable and reliable. I'm concerned because it seems like most of these services are geared towards "marketing" (aka "spamming") applications, which is definitely something I do not want our department to be associated with. I'd also be concerned that some members may automatically block messages coming from these services for this reason. I'm also unsure of the speed that each message will be delivered in - obviously, we'd usually like each member to be notified within several minutes of us sending the message. So, I'm wondering if anyone has any experience using these types of services, and has any recommendations for which service to use, or any other advice or comments at all. Unfortunately, money is tight for us, so a more ideal solution using pagers is not possible at this time. Again, thanks for any advice anyone can offer.

Hello - I am currently a paramedic working with a private EMS service. For the past several years I have been involved with a week-long youth summer camp program operated through the Boy Scouts. For this coming summer, I have been asked to take on the "health & safety officer" position. This involves being available to treat any injuries and illnesses as they occur during the week, and determine whether additional care (calling for an ambulance, or driving to the hospital) is needed. As you might expect, most of the injuries and such that occur are usually minor - cuts, burns, splinters, bee stings, mild dehydration, etc. The second component of the job involves storing any prescription medications brought by the campers. We store them in a secure, air-conditioned building, and I would be present whenever a scout arrives to take his medication. In the past, the medical staff has insisted upon keeping meds stored in this way (with exceptions made for epi pens, etc) so that the staff can ensure that each child has taken his medications on time, and so that medications will not be lost, mistakenly taken at the wrong time, etc. I have a couple questions I'd like to try to get some advice on: first, has anyone ever volunteered in such a capacity before? Would it be a worthwhile effort to try to establish any type of medical control and operating protocols? Or just operate under the common sense rule? If anyone with professional EMS credentials has volunteered in such a capacity before, I'd appreciate hearing any general advice you may have. Second, I'm concerned about the liability implications of storing the kid's medications like we have been doing. I'm worried that it could be construed that I would be "administering" these medications, which is obviously beyond my scope of practice. In reality, I would only be supervising the child as he takes his medication, ensuring that he takes it at the proper time. I don't know if this is "crossing the line" in terms of my scope of practice or not. I've thought about just requiring each individual camper to be responsible for his own medication, however, I believe that the advantages I discussed above outweigh this course of action. Anyway, if anyone has any advice or comments, I'd appreciate it if you could share them with me.