How many have met/know your medical director?

[Jambi]

It occurred to me that I've never met the medical director at any job I've ever had since 1999. I've seen our county medical director, but have never had a conversation with him. I've never seen the ones for the companies, ever.

Our county has 2798 EMTs and 885 paramedics from the most recent information.

Anyone else work in gargantuan systems?

 

[NYMedic828]

That's a real shame.

I think the footwork of any good EMS system comes from consistent interaction with the governing body.

NYC is about as gargantuan of a system as it gets and we are REQUIRED to interact with our MDs a few times a year at a minimum in order to maintain regional certification. (Regardless of your agency)

We also have a medical director on duty roaming the city in a Crown Vic available to respond to unusual jobs or major incidents.

Mind you, I have not met all of NYCs directors we have around 20 so it's a bit difficult. (We ultimately have a board of directors and then a few lesser MDs)

Where I volunteer is another story. I have never met the medical directors I call for orders and I have met out firehouse director for 5 seconds so he can sign me off as an ALS provider for my agency.

 

[Medic Tim]

My company has aprox 1200 medics. I have met our previous one who recently left ( we currently have an interm one from the department of health) and our trauma medical director. I have a feeling I will be seeing the new one more as they will finally (sometime in 2013) be rolling out protocols for the 25 or so of us who are ALS.

 

[DesertMedic66]

Never met ours. He is based at a hospital that is not in our response area. I wish we had a medical director from our area. EMT and Medic scopes would be greatly expanded.

 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

At one department he usually meets with us on a monthly basis to teach a CE and then answer any questions we have about the protocols and hear any suggestions we have. He misses a few months a year due to vacation/work etc, but we also have a annual protocol review so it works out to about once a month.

He tailors the protocol to the people and what he is comfortable with, so until we got rid of some medics who were "not as responsible as they could be" in his opinion, he did not add in RSI into the protocol. Now, he is adding it in to the protocol person-by-person (yes, our medical protocol is not only broken down into BLS/ILS/ALS but also "personalized." I am waiting for the day in which each of us gets our own copy with our name embossed on the front cover in gold lettering... ).

But in all seriousness, I think it is a good system. Granted we are a small rural department with about 45 members, 30 of whom are active any given month.

In my urban department, I have never met the medical director and wouldn't know her from Eve if I ran into her on the street. Granted I also do not have in-charge status at this department, and my understanding is she does meet with those with in-charge statuses--first to sign them off as in-charge and second, on a monthly-as-needed basis to address CQI issues.

 

[usalsfyre]

I've met and conversed with every medical director I've ever had.

 

[DrParasite]

at my former job, i knew my medical director. I had his email, and his personal cell phone number should I have ran into any problems. In fact, since he has left that position (as have I), he still said anyone could contact his for answers to questions. He was actually one of my references on my application for grad school

At my current job, we can't seem to keep a medical director for any length of time, at least for the past 5 years I have been here.

 

[Jambi]

I've met and conversed with every medical director I've ever had.

I wish, seriously. I would be nice. My directors are essentially unavailable.

 

[STXmedic]

I've met and conversed with every medical director I've ever had.

Same. My FT job is a very large system with 1 medical director, and 3 assistant medical directors. Speak with all of them several times a year at the minimum. Same goes for the smaller PT jobs I work.

 

[DesertMedic66]

Same. My FT job is a very large system with 1 medical director, and 3 assistant medical directors. Conversed with all of them. Same goes for the smaller PT jobs I work.

Are your medical directors agency based or county based?

 

[STXmedic]

Are your medical directors agency based or county based?

Agency. I've never done or seen the county thing y'all do in Cali.

 

[hoop762]

I see and talk to mine regularly. Usually once every couple weeks or so. He's a great Guy...and he owes me a steak.

 

[DesertMedic66]

Agency. I've never done or seen the county thing y'all do in Cali.

Yeah that's why we never get to see ours. He is in charge of one 911 transport company, fire departments, numerous BLS companies, casino EMTs, and HEMS. So he doesn't really have the option to meet with all of us.

 

[Epi-do]

I've met and spoken with mine several times. He got to know me quite well when I had several runs in a couple month period that had to be on his desk within 24 hours due to the protocols that were used (chemical sedation, cric). Fortunately, he had nothing but good things to say about my decisions.

The two previous medical directors I have worked under, I have also met and spoke with. One of them worked at the hospital I went to medic class at, so I got to know him pretty well, since he liked to hunt us out when we were doing clinicals in the ED.

 

[mrg86]

We have a county medical director that puts together the protocols and handles the big stuff/picture and handles one or two fire departments at a smaller level. The other fire departments and ambulance companies have their own medical directors that handle BLS/ALS run reviews and sometimes CE or OTEP. The system works very well. My medical director usually stops by for run review once a quarter at a minimum.

 

[NomadicMedic]

My county service has two medical directors. Both of them all docs at the ER that we frequently transport to. Both take part in our continuing education, are both very involved with QI and are both pretty nice guys. In fact, one is a former medic, so he understands what we do. Both of our medical directors are very involved with state protocol, and are diligently working to improve prehospital care. I see them both often, both are very approachable and both will take the time to answer questions and just BS with you.

 

[DrankTheKoolaid]

re

Talk and work with him frequently as my LEMSA Director and Head of the MAC, and also as the very active Medical Director for the Paramedic program I am a lead instructor for. Great guy, very user friendly Med Dir.

 

[Trashtruck]

We never see ours, unless you're in trouble.

 

[Jambi]

We never see ours, unless you're in trouble.

I'd be willing to bet this is a fairly widespread situation.

 

[chillybreeze]

I see and get to speak with ours regularly! She is awesome!! She is even friends on my facebook page!