EMS Today

Doug Hexel has been in emergency services since 2004 and currently serves as a firefighter-paramedic for the City of Schenectady (NY), a rescue-medical specialist for New York Urban/Technical Search and Rescue Task Force 2 (NY-TF2), paramedic instructor at the State University of New York at Cobleskill and shift commander at the Albany County Sheriff’s Office EMS Division, where he is also a lead...

Scot Phelps and Maria Werner talk about why 911 controllers and communicators are handcuffed from doing their job the proper way.

If you’ve ever read a medical research study, even just the headline, this podcast is for you. If you’re an EMS educator leading the next generation of EMS providers to our field, this podcast is for you. If you’re a training officer or other EMS professional who presents to colleagues or medical directors, this podcast is for you. You don’t have to be a statistician to interpret all the studies....

This is part two of a two-part mid-pandemic deep dive — Jonathon Feit sits down with Joseph Casciotti, battalion chief of Community Medicine at the Harris County (TX) Emergency Service District 48 Fire Department. In this installment, the two explore the experience of sharing data with a state immunization registry… only to find errors in one’s own vaccine record. Listen to part one here .

In honor of Telecommunication Week, the EMS Handoff has a special recording highlighting some telecommunication professionals as they discuss telecommunication, the job profile, challenges, and even, the “perfect” system.  Randy Beeman is the current National Emergency Number Association (NENA) chapter president. He is a 30-year retired medic with 40+ years in local government but currently serves...

How fast should you operate an ambulance? How strong is a signature in a patient care refusal situation? Doug Wolfberg joins us to discuss this and more on this week’s episode about Doug’s top five EMS issues. Doug Wolfberg, a founding member of Page, Wolfberg & Wirth, has been a practicing EMS attorney for 25 years. Doug is a nationally respected EMS leader who has been involved in the profes...

Hosts Scot Phelps with Maria Werner talk about why body cameras are a must in EMS for everyone’s sake.

Guest: Jason Patton, Fire Department Chronicles Jason Patton is a 13-year career firefighter/paramedic and creator of the popular video series Fire Department Chronicles, which amassed 1.8 million followers and over 150 million views. Jason is also the vice president of Fire Department Coffee, a board member and spokesperson for the Heroes Cup which works with NHL teams, such as the Boston Bruins,...

How did the "don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue and don't harass policy" (DADT policy) affect the mental stress of a military soldier? How far have we come for an inclusive culture to promote mental wellness of our first responders? Hear the story of Pete Kruse and his experiences serving in the military and as an EMS specialist.

Guests: Susan Bailey, Chris Way, and Troy Tuke NAEMT President-Elect Susan Bailey is the director of the Louisiana Bureau of Emergency Medical Services, and has been active in the EMS Industry since 1990. She has experience in both the rural and urban setting. She is the chair of the Commission on Accreditation of Prehospital Continuing Education (CAPCE) Board of Directors and serves as a curricul...

Get to know Douglas Randell, what his favorite hobby is, what the EMS P.O.D. is, and learn about the type of podcast topics and people he will have on his show.

A&E Network’s hit non-fiction series “Nightwatch” returns for a new season following the skilled first responders on the front lines of one of America’s most dynamic agencies—New Orleans EMS.   Each one-hour episode of “Nightwatch” chronicles the sacrifice and heroic work of the first responders in New Orleans, a city filled with rich culture and a vibrant community – and an amazing array of E...

Guest: Curtis Varone Does being an emergency service worker impact your freedom of speech online on social media? Are there pictures you can take on scene? What should you do with pictures you need to delete? You may be surprised to learn what could happen if you delete an image prematurely.  Chief Curt Varone, a retired fire chief and current practicing attorney, explores social media and its leg...

In the latest episode of Sacred Cows & Data Cubes -- Part one of a two-part mid-pandemic deep dive -- Jonathon Feit talks with Joseph Casciotti, battalion chief of Community Medicine at the Harris County (TX) Emergency Service District 48 Fire Department. Chief Casciotti oversees Community Paramedicine/Mobile Integrated Health, infectious disease prevention and control, and COVID-19 response (...

How can storytelling impact the first-responder culture? Hear from a ghostwriter Alee Anderson, who specializes in working with victims of trauma. "Telling stories is one of the most powerful means that leaders have to influence, teach and inspire,” Anderson said. “What makes storytelling so effective for learning? For starters, storytelling forges connections among people, and between people and...

Join EMS TODAY Show host A.J. Heightman, and Douglas Butler, Director of Clinical Services for ImageTrend, one of the nation’s largest and diversified data service companies in the United States, for a deep dive into one of the most comprehensive reports ever produced in EMS.

Guest: President Oren Barzilay March 17, 2021, marks the 25th anniversary of the merger between FDNY and NY EMS. FDNY EMS Local 2507 President Oren Barzilay was an EMT at the time of this merger. President Oren joins the EMS Handoff crew on this special episode celebrating this momentous occasion discussing not only the history of this merger but where he says FDNY and EMS in the future.

AerosoLess Medical  has recently released a revolutionary new face mask that allows medical personnel to again provide nebulized treatments, targeted directly into the patient’s lungs.  The SafetyNebTM Mask uses patent-pending technology to create a CPAP-like tight seal with the patient’s face and is also fitted with water-resistant viral filters over its vent holes. These features drastically red...

Infection control consultant Katherine West talks about Ebola. Why is she discussing it in 2021? Hasn’t it come and gone? Not exactly.

Guests: David and Kimberly Hughes In this week’s episode of The EMS Handoff, the hosts take a week off and open up the chest of unreleased episodes from the days of the Tuesday EMS Tidbits Podcast. Back in the day, Eric, Bradley, and David were joined by David and Kimberly Hughes. They are the parents of Drew Hughes and the Founders of the Do It For Drew Foundation. They have a tremendous story ab...

Project Mayday is happy to promote 809 Fight 4 Awareness that supports the mental wellness of our first responders in Southern California! Erik Hernandez shares his story on how he started with 809 Fight 4 Awareness and his own story for mental wellness as a first responder.

Ambulance Science Podcast: Philadelphia’s failure to fund EMS forces “meat wagon-tactics" by police, while surgeons ignore the real problem, say Scot Phelps and Maria Werner.   Key Points: Philadelphia Fire EMS is severely underfunded, with a unit-hour utilization of 1.0, meaning they're busy 100% of the time, leading to a delayed response time As a result, critical penetrating trauma patients are...

There has been a lot of buzz about the drug TXA (tranexamic acid), an inexpensive medication that has few negative side effects and has shown some success in reducing mortality in a segment of trauma patients. But the key word is “effect.” Is TXA effective and is it being shown as having an effective benefit for prehospital trauma patients? Join JEMS Editor Emeritus A.J. Heightman and the principa...

Guests: Tyler Christifulli How is it possible for metabolic acidosis and anion gap to be remotely interesting? The two words send shivers down most medics’ spine. However, Tyler Christifulli from FoamFrat joins the EMS Handoff crew to make this information not only accessible but fun to learn and review.  Tyler Christifulli is a flight medic and  co-founder/producer at FOAMfrat where he lends his...

Guests: Dr. Mark Cicero, Dr. Clare Wallner Which has a longer attention span? A goldfish or an average adult?  Mark X. Cicero, MD, FAAP, is an associate professor of pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) at the Yale School of Medicine, the director of the pediatric disaster preparedness program, an EMS physician and an attending physician at Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital. Mark has designed exper...