Good sources for EMS statistics?

SeeNoMore

SeeNoMore

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I am trying to find a website or other source where different kinds of statistics are kept for EMS nationwide. Part of this just has to do with general interest, but I also want to start looking into which areas of the country have the greatest call volume, which procedures are allowed by protocols etc.

My goal is to be a Flight Medic and I was told I should work in as busy an area as possible as soon as possible if I want to be hireable. At this point I don't care where I live so I am open to moving for an EMS job.
 
SeeNoMore said:
I am trying to find a website or other source where different kinds of statistics are kept for EMS nationwide. Part of this just has to do with general interest, but I also want to start looking into which areas of the country have the greatest call volume, which procedures are allowed by protocols etc.

My goal is to be a Flight Medic and I was told I should work in as busy an area as possible as soon as possible if I want to be hireable. At this point I don't care where I live so I am open to moving for an EMS job.
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It may take a lot more than just call volume to make you a qualified and good Flight Medic.

Often the services that have the highest call volume do the least because they are in an area with many hospitals just around the corner.

The rural regions may have expanded protocols and may be more like the calls a Flight Paramedic would see. This of course is if the service you are looking to apply to is for a local FD or PD HEMS that does no IFT.

If you are looking at a service that moves critical care patients and is not just a flying taxi, then you concentration will need to be on education while you are obtaining your experience. The education also doesn't mean just showing up to apply with a "patch" and a string of alphabet soup like BCLS, ACLS, NRP and PALS which are no brainers to obtain. In the interview it will be obvious if you just memorized the material in these weekend courses or actually know what the course was about.

You need to find a quality service that has an involved medical director and offers education on a continuing bases and not just "CEs" to meet the state requirements. There are "busy" services that provide quality and not be dogged because the EMS agency doesn't have enough trucks which makes them appear to have a high call volume. The call volume is irrelevant if the service and patient care are not quality.
 
I have no first hand experience however several local flight medics have recommended the southwest to get some experience as a flight medic then take your pick at where you want to work. You can eventually get on anywhere with enough education and experience however having flight experience helps when applying for a flight position. It seems that the southwest has a higher concentration of HEMS providers than other areas. Just a thought to look there but as far as where to get your baseline experience vent hit it on the head.

Much of what you can and can't do will depend on your medical director and their experience with the service. Two companies that operate in the same area with different medical directors could have extremely different protocols.
 
Both good posts. Thanks.

I am trying to figure all this out before I am halfway through my career so I have time to correct mistakes, find the right oppertunities.

I have no illusion that high call volume means great care necessarily, and I work in a rural system now and see some of the benefits. At this point though I do feel the major impendiment is call volume. But I will keep up my education as best I can.

But I am goign to keep looking for some comprehenisve EMT data sites or resorues. Not even because of the above issues, but just because I am interested in the field and the people in it. JEMS has been a good start for some of that, and I've also found some intersting case studies and HR reports on a county by county or state by state basis. Maybe that is just the way such information is collected and presented.
 
I'm planning on moving to a very rural system to get my experience needed for flight medic, and while I'm doing that also getting my CCT education (the rural 911 service is a part of a larger company that runs IFTs and CCT trucks in the ABQ area, so they are willing to help me get my CCT). From what I was told when picking up flight teams while working IFTs, they love the medics that are educated and come from rural EMS systems because they are used to being on their own. And, as Vent kindly put it, they tend to have more expanded scopes.
The area I want to work in has at least 45 minute transport to a small rural ER, 1.5 hours to a Level 2 trauma center, and over 2 hours to a level 1 trauma center. And they run about 15 - 20 calls per 48 hour shift.
 
Some recommendations for those who want to do CCT or Flight.

Education:
2 year degree recommended or at least some college level A&P and Pharmacology.

The usual:
*ACLS
*PALS
*NRP
*Trauma
*Triage with scenario based questions

Critical Care:
~ Ventilators
~ Ballon Pump
~ Hemodynamics
~ Lab values
~ Various invasive formulas

Check out:
- CAMTS book (These standards change often)
- The Aeromedical Certification Examinations Self-Assessment Test (ACE SAT).
- Dr. Bledsoe's Critical Care EMT-P textbook (Brady)
- Certified Flight Paramedic Study Guide.
- Air and Surface Patient Transport Principles and Practices 2nd or 3rd edition or whatever is the latest.
 
Vent, does the Bledsoe CCT text do a decent job of introducing the paramedic to lab values and basic radiology?
 
Not as much as I would like to see. I recommend getting a crtical care handbook.

Radiology is a broad field. For chest, RT books usually have a decent section.
 
Chest is all I care about (right now). Thanks.
 
Bledsoe's book is fantastic to start out with, but that's about it. One I also recommend starting out is Critical Care made Ridiculously Simple. Alike Dubin's it's written very simplistic but contains a load of information.

AACN text and Critical Care Nursing a Holistic Approach are excellent referrence material to get a general understanding of Critical Care.

There is a radiologist that has seminars on emergency/critical care interpretation for non-physicians that I attended decades ago, and was informed his group still does these. I highly investigating such seminars.

R/r 911
 
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Ill certainly check out those books/suggestions.

At this point I still plan on starting in as busy a system as I can find and transitioning to a more rural one if I can find one that matches my needs. The rural squads I know of that have that long of transport times have nothing near that many calls.
 
I would inquire on services that transported IFT with critical care teams/Paramedics. One can gain a lot of experience and information by working with the crew. Many of the outlying suburban areas may have such teams or units.

R/r 911
 
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