Event EMS

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michael150

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Hey guys! Just a quick question about event EMS and how to get into it. I know there isn’t much money but I think it would be really cool to work events like EDC, Coachella, or Ultra Music Festival. From what I’ve heard the med tent is very progressive with physicians and inducing therapeutic hypothermia; things like that. Are the events typically run by local EMS (i.e. AMR, Rural Metro, local FD)? Thanks in advance!
 
It varies by location. Some are run by local EMS, some partner with organizations like the Red Cross and the Medical Reserve Corps. Some use companies like ParaDocs.
 
I've heard about event EMS at the Warped tour concerts.... Take a whole bunch of people attending a massive concert 8 hours at least during the middle of summer + alcohol for sale and potential drug use = MCI.

Large scale events typically contract out EMS to a private staffing company, simply due to the magnitude of staff required. Small scale events (football games at college or professional stadiums, single venue concerts) will usually contract services out to the local EMS or FD (and be charged an OT rate), or they will have their own agencies made up of off duty Firefighters or EMTs and paramedics.

When I was in upstate NY, I was on the Event medical staff for Syracuse University's Carrier Dome. During a major event (football game or concert), we staffed with 2 MDs (who wandered around), 3 nurses in the first aid room, 2 stretchers (one on the supper level, one on the lower level) staffed by two paramedics each with a full complement of ALS equipment, one roving support paramedic, one incident commander, one dispatcher, and 4 BLS crews upstairs, and 4 downstairs, each with a BLS bag. As well as one ALS ambulance (provided by the local EMS agency) and one BLS ambulance (provided by the university). We were all part time employees of the university, and employment was obtained by being introduced and knowing the right people.

BTW, I currently work as an event deputy fire marshal / EMT for a college in NC, make $18 an hour, and spend most of my time walking around and enjoying the show or sporting event. So it's not like you should be working for peanuts, unless you want to.

If you are really interested in doing it, reach out to the organizers of those festivals (most have websites, as well as contact us forms). or reach out to the hosting agencies directly and ask them who provides medical coverage for the events. I would imagine their protocols and resources are pretty much agency specific.
 
The Coachella and Stagecoach festivals are all handled by AMR-Palm Springs division. Every festival season we hire 30-40 temporary EMTs to help with staffing needs. All paramedics are current paramedics working with AMR in the county of Riverside. We have the ability to hire temp RNs however we usually have enough who want to work the events who are already employed by AMR. We contract out for our docs.

We are not utilizing therapeutic hypothermia inside our medical tents and I don’t believe there has been much talk about doing so. We have a hospital located a couple of miles away from the venue location.
 
Hey guys thanks for the replies and information!
 
DesertMedic66 said:
The Coachella and Stagecoach festivals are all handled by AMR-Palm Springs division. Every festival season we hire 30-40 temporary EMTs to help with staffing needs. All paramedics are current paramedics working with AMR in the county of Riverside. We have the ability to hire temp RNs however we usually have enough who want to work the events who are already employed by AMR. We contract out for our docs.

We are not utilizing therapeutic hypothermia inside our medical tents and I don’t believe there has been much talk about doing so. We have a hospital located a couple of miles away from the venue location.
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With the therapeutic hypothermia, I was talking more EDC with MDMA overdoses. I heard wind of them doing stuff to try and rapidly cool temperatures that can get up to 106-107 degrees! That combined with the heat of 115 in the Las Vegas desert, you’re making for a baddddddd time.
 
michael150 said:
With the therapeutic hypothermia, I was talking more EDC with MDMA overdoses. I heard wind of them doing stuff to try and rapidly cool temperatures that can get up to 106-107 degrees! That combined with the heat of 115 in the Las Vegas desert, you’re making for a baddddddd time.
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I am well aware of those. Coachella is huge for drug use with the main drug being MDMA/Ecstasy/Molly. Every single year we get a couple of organ donors from their temps reaching that high. Last year we had a guy hit 109.

We have a couple of guys who work EDC and they are doing ice baths as well as dantrolene
 
Exactly! Just exciting stuff and stuff to learn, that’s all. EMS to me is all about learning and caring for patients in the best way possible. That’s why I think event medicine is so cool. In festivals like EDC and Stagecoach, medicine that is usually practiced in a controlled setting is thrown into the field to watch it thrive. It’s awesome to me.

Sorry, nerded out there for a second.
 
DesertMedic66 said:
I am well aware of those. Coachella is huge for drug use with the main drug being MDMA/Ecstasy/Molly. Every single year we get a couple of organ donors from their temps reaching that high. Last year we had a guy hit 109.

We have a couple of guys who work EDC and they are doing ice baths as well as dantrolene
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MDMA triggers Malignant Hyperthermia (MH) in swine with genetic susceptibility to MH
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14576550
 
DrParasite said:
I've heard about event EMS at the Warped tour concerts.... Take a whole bunch of people attending a massive concert 8 hours at least during the middle of summer + alcohol for sale and potential drug use = MCI.
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My first large gathering event was a Warped tour concert.. in Florida, in July. Thousands of kids to young adults, not eating, not hydrating.

We had the main medical tent with doctors, nurses and medics, two medical tents by the stages, two MERV units for transports around the event, plus people roaming around. I mainly worked a side tent, and saw about a hundred people over the course of the day.
 
DrParasite said:
When I was in upstate NY, I was on the Event medical staff for Syracuse University's Carrier Dome. During a major event (football game or concert), we staffed with 2 MDs (who wandered around), 3 nurses in the first aid room, 2 stretchers (one on the supper level, one on the lower level) staffed by two paramedics each with a full complement of ALS equipment, one roving support paramedic, one incident commander, one dispatcher, and 4 BLS crews upstairs, and 4 downstairs, each with a BLS bag. As well as one ALS ambulance (provided by the local EMS agency) and one BLS ambulance (provided by the university). We were all part time employees of the university, and employment was obtained by being introduced and knowing the right people.
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During an event like a football game, who many pts would you see?
 
The guys from CrowdRX are doing a research study on Dantrolene and MH with MDMA overdoses. Interesting stuff.
 
where are you located?

Paradocs, CrowdRX and Amphibious Medics are three of the major contracted private medical companies that do events. Some event like Burning Man have native EMS, Black Rock City ES. Others contract with local EMS for small stuff. Big colleges can have their own emergency services like Rutgers University does and they habdle their own football games. in NJ the state has a task force that specifically handles big events, like Warped Tour. The Meadowlands complex (Giants Stadium) has their own EMS and uses the state task force for big thinks like the Hot 97 Summer Jam and before EDC moved to Shea.
 
Bullets said:
where are you located?

Paradocs, CrowdRX and Amphibious Medics are three of the major contracted private medical companies that do events. Some event like Burning Man have native EMS, Black Rock City ES. Others contract with local EMS for small stuff. Big colleges can have their own emergency services like Rutgers University does and they habdle their own football games. in NJ the state has a task force that specifically handles big events, like Warped Tour. The Meadowlands complex (Giants Stadium) has their own EMS and uses the state task force for big thinks like the Hot 97 Summer Jam and before EDC moved to Shea.
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I’m located in Omaha, NE from Las Vegas. I know that CrowdRX runs the medical staff for Burning Man and I may think about applying with them. I have an interview tomorrow for Joffe Emergency Services over the phone to work for the Warrior Dash up here.
 
Chimpie said:
During an event like a football game, who many pts would you see?
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this is going back 15+ years, so my recollection of numbers isn't what it used to be......

IIRC for a football game, we (the EMS side of the Dome response team) might get "dispatched" to 20-30 patients, mostly alcohol related or slip and falls, along with the occasional chest pain of difficulty breathing. the "first aid room" which was staffed with 2 to 3 nurses usually saw more walk in traffic. ~35,000 guests during basketball games, ~50,000 during football games, plus employees, all in an enclosed area, and the potential for injuries or illnesses increases. We also provided coverage for all other events (Lacrosse games, indoor soccer, youth footbal.l, you name it, and we had people there), with our typical coverage is 3 EMTs and 1 medic or paramedic, plus a BLS ambulance (but those events were typically patient free).

I heard of concerts where providers saw 100+ patients, including having both doctors running from OD to OD and later deal with two simultaneous cardiac arrests.

If I remember correctlu (and we discussed one one day while looking over the rules), NYS and NCAA required a minimum of 1 ALS ambulance at major sporting events (They actually required more, but you could get away with 1 ALS ambulance). That was it and we far surpassed the requirements.

Typically, the EMS dispatcher would receive the call from stadium operations, and then dispatch the nearest BLS crew. depending on the nature of the call, an ALS stretcher unit might start heading over (packed hallways during halftime made traffic nearly impossible). The support medic or doc might head over too, depending on what was going on. The primary goal was to get the person to the first aid room, where a better assessment and more intervention could be performed or perform lifesaving interventions there. If needed, the patient would be transported out by ambulance to the local ER, or treated and released. IIRC, someone once told me we had one of the highest cardiac arrest save rates in the nation, something like 95% (but I haven't verified that information).
 
DrParasite said:
If I remember correctlu (and we discussed one one day while looking over the rules), NYS and NCAA required a minimum of 1 ALS ambulance at major sporting events (They actually required more, but you could get away with 1 ALS ambulance). That was it and we far surpassed the requirements.
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NYS law (Title 10, Section 18) has quite a slew of mandates for medical care availability at large events. Here's an excerpt:
  • (1) For 5,000 to 15,000 attendees, there shall be one emergency health care facility onsite staffed by a minimum of two emergency medical technicians, one ambulance onsite staffed by at least one emergency medical technician, and the services of a physician available to the site within 15 minutes. Documentation shall be provided showing that local, municipal and public safety officials, including police, fire and local emergency medical services personnel have been advised of the event in writing.
  • (2) For 15,001 to 30,000 attendees, there shall be two emergency health care facilities onsite, each staffed by two emergency medical technicians, one ambulance onsite, staffed by at least one emergency medical technician and the services of a physician available to the site within 15 minutes. Documentation shall be provided showing that local, municipal and public safety officials, including police, fire and local emergency medical services personnel have been advised of the event in writing.
  • (3) For 30,001 to 50,000 attendees, there shall be two emergency health care facilities onsite, each staffed by two emergency medical technicians, two ambulances onsite, each staffed by at least one emergency medical technician, and a physician onsite. Documentation shall be provided showing that local, municipal and public safety officials, including police, fire and local emergency medical services personnel have been advised of the event in writing.
  • (4) For over 50,000 attendees, there shall be two emergency health care facilities onsite, each staffed by two emergency medical technicians, three ambulances onsite, each staffed by at least one emergency medical technician, a physician onsite and a written statement shall be available describing the impact the event will have on public safety and emergency medical services in the area, which must include comments by local police, fire, emergency medical services personnel and other public safety officials who have jurisdiction to provide services.
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EpiEMS said:
NYS law (Title 10, Section 18) has quite a slew of mandates for medical care availability at large events. Here's an excerpt:
Click to expand...
you're right, but you forgot the important one:
(e) Advanced life support (ALS) services may be substituted for the physician on call or site if the ALS is at the 3 or 4 level as described in section 800.45(d) of this Title and with the approval of the permit-issuing official.
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and since the dome only holds 49,250 seats, if you wanted to go bare bones, you could probably get away with 1 BLS ambulance and 1 ALS ambulance and two EMTs in the first aid room, and still be in the letter of the law.
 
I've worked a few large events and in general it requires dealing with my least favorite patient populations. Intoxicated people with minor scrapes who slur their words at you, meanwhile their significant other drunkenly screams "please help my girlfriend bro", with everyone having a high potential to vomit at any moment. Add to that having to document the countless "would you check me out" walk ups, and it's just so far from what I want to be doing.
 
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