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Arctickat

EMT City Sponsor
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Posts posted by Arctickat

  1. I suck at thinking fast. I'm one of those guys who gets into an argument, then 20 minutes later a point that would have won it for me, or a totally new angle of looking at the Isubject finally comes to mind, but it's far too late. Or witty retorts, I just can't do it. i am a slow and methodical thinker. Given time I can dissect a subject, view it from multiple positions, and determine the best course of action and the best way to present it for discussion.

    I'd be a good person for a Thinktank.

    I've been in EMS for 35 years. As some have already said, given time this stuff will become second nature for you. I can remember how stressful my first ACLS megacode and exams were back in 1993. Today I can walk into a refresher course, write the exam and get into the mid 90s, use my megacode practice time to run through my exam, and leave the class in a couple of hours. It tends to make the docs and nurses in the class a little green with envy too as they struggle through their class. Sometimes I'll stay and tutor my classmates, just for the EMS brownie points.

    My biggest problem now is that so much of this stuff has been ingrained into me that it requires thought NOT to do stuff. Last few asystole codes I've run I had to resist the urge to give atropine....and a couple of times I gave it anyways because I didn't have anything else to do.

  2. It's the first of its kind in Canada using the LEAN 3P philosophy from the outset. Rather than have an architect design the building and force the health care providers to work around the design, frontline staff, patients, support staff, long term care residents, and family members designed the facility to fit the most efficient work processes possible. By integrated it means that all of the health needs of the community are obtained under one roof. Our doctors all work in the building, seeing clinic patients in the primary health area, but also available for emerg, acute care, and long term care. Home Care, Primary Health, Mental Health, Physical, speech, and occupational therapies take place in the same facility. Although a client can still have a specific physician, if he isn't available, any other physician still has access to the medical records and can see the client.

    When the design team started, they were given a $15 million facility footprint to deal with. Since the facility is being added as another wing to a 46 bed level 4 long term care facility that is over 30 years old, one concern the community had was the aging infrastructure and many required upgrades to the older facility. During the design process they managed to shave off over $3 million that could be redistributed to upgrade the long term care facility while they also managed to increase services in the new addition and reduce wasted space.

    Municipal participation is voluntary, and even though they will be using this hospital, they can't be forced to contribute to the project. Some have other priorities, some are close to bankruptcy. To be honest, this is likely the lowest population density that will succeed in acquiring funding for a new hospital. Up here, health facilities are paid for by a 20/80 % split between provincial and municipal governments. Some just have higher priorities than health care.

    Edit:

    We won't have shovels into the ground until almost August, but this facility has already won 2 awards and manyacross North America have expressed an interest in touring it once it is complete.

    http://qualitysummit.ca/awards/

  3. It's been a very stressful winter for the Mayor. I had to talk 9 municipal districts to collectively contribute $3 million towards the construction of our new hospital. That's a total population of just over 3,000 or $1,000 per person for a facility totaling $15 million. In the end, to get the project to move forward my community and a few others had to increase our contributions by about 80% to compensate for those who refused to contribute.

  4. Okay, time to call in some favours. You guys know that I've been there in the past to help out your causes...now here's mine.

    http://www.townofkelvington.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/20140224115403414.pdf

    Our Hospital Foundation is a charity that purchases new equipment and furnishings to improve our ability to provide healthcare in the community. This lottery is one of our major fund raisers. Tickets are $60.00 each or two for $100.00 CDN. The attached pamphlet shows the prizes, and I will personally ensure that they get delivered to you.

    • Like 1
  5. Sigh....

    Sitting down to my perfectly BBQ T-bone steak and dispatch calls. Hospital wants me to call and speak to the doc.

    I call the doc, they have a diabetic patient there who overdosed on Insulin, so they're going to titrate a D5W infusion to maintain her BGL until the insulin wears off. She wants to add a couple of 25g amps to the litre of D5W to make it D10W. Problem is, they can't figure out how to add the D50W to the IV bag. I tell her I'll be right over and with one bite of my juicy T-bone savouring away in my mouth, I drive the 4 blocks to the hospital.

    4 nurses and a doc greet me with a litre of D5W and a syringe of D50W that they can't figure how to inject into the bag. Our IV bags have the access port on the side of the bag, and the D50 have the clave adapters on them. Although this one was removed so they could use the needle to inject into the bag. The needle can't penetrate the port because of the protective shroud around it that would only fit in to access the ports on the bottoms of the bags.

    Worried that my steak would get cold if I held an inservice for them, I firstly suggested a D10NS instead of a D10W, then grabbed another box of D50, assembled it, placed an 18ga needle onto a syringe to evacuate sufficient NS, removed the syringe and attached the D50W with the green leur lock, and injected it into the bag. Quite literally, they were stunned.

    I then recommended the doc to start at 50ml/hr, check BGL q15 min and titrate to keep it between 4 and 8 Mmol/l If it goes down, increase by 10ml.hr, if it goes up, decrease by 10 ml/hr.

    My steak is cold. :/

    • Like 1
  6. I use an old service station display cabinet with slide out drawers, they're usually free for the asking and often get thrown out. I put velcro onto the back of the cabinet and onto the back of the drawer so that when they slide in they are secured. A cut up fridge magnet and metal would do the same.

    They look something like these:

    http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Lot-4-Akro-Mils-Plastic-Storage-15-Drawers-Cabinet-60-Total-Clean-Complete-GOOD-/171310764192?pt=Tool_Boxes_Storage&hash=item27e2ead0a0

  7. I think you're confused about what "No Fault" means.

    Here's a quote from Wiki that explains it.

    No-fault systems generally exempt individuals from the usual liability for causing body injury if they do so in a car accident; when individuals purchase "liability" insurance under those regimes, the insurance covers bodily injury of the insured and the insured's passengers caused by a car accident, regardless of which party would be liable under ordinary common law tort rules. No-fault insurance has the goal of lowering premium costs by avoiding expensive litigationover the causes of accidents, while providing quick payments for injuries or loss of property. Further, no-fault systems often grant "set" or "fixed" compensation for certain injuries regardless of the unique aspects of the injury or the individual injured. Workers compensation funds typically are run as "no fault" systems with usually a fixed schedule for compensation for various injuries.

  8. Would you feel comfortable putting someone with that on their record behind an emergency vehicle ?????????

    Especially if he's following too closely.

    Don't worry too much about it kiddo. Here's a good assumption you can use. Do your violations result in you paying more for your insurance? If not, then you're insurable. If so, then there are a few options your potential employer can consider:

    1. He may just give you a chance because he likes you
    2. He may prohibit you from driving until your record is clear.
    3. He may prohibit you from driving when a patient is on board or when responding
    4. He may place you on an extended probation and if he gets a single complaint about your driving, you're gone.
    5. You could offer to pay any additional insurance costs yourself.
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