Werner

TO: Columbus Area EMS District Board Members
FROM: Werner Biedermann
DATE: July 10, 2013
SUBJECT: June 2013 Monthly Report
Lifestar responded to 54 emergency 911 calls in June. We also performed a paramedic intercept for Randolph EMS and one fire standby for Fall River Fire Department. Below is the call breakdown by municipality. Columbus Contract Run Statistics for 2013 JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC Total We had three calls that exceeded the contracted response requirements. The first call was to a Hampden location on the Bristol Road that actually was outside of our contracted area and took 19 minutes. The crew also explained that they encountered some construction on their route which added to the delay. The second call was for a late night motor vehicle accident with a non-specific location. The responding crew used a normal response speed to search the roadside by searchlight for the vehicle. This response was also 19 minutes. Call three was for a response to a specific house number on Avalon Road between Brookside and Wildwood Lanes. That number did not exist on that street. It turned out the location was on West Avalon. The response time was eight minutes. Regarding the third call above, this is the third time we have been sent to “Avalon” street for an emergency on West Avalon. There are two problems with this issue. First, West Avalon Road located off of Western Avenue is labeled on the street sign as Avalon, not West Avalon. Second, and more importantly, the Columbia County dispatch database has incorrect cross streets for the buildings located on West Avalon. As a result of this call, Lifestar EMS in conjunction with Columbus Police Department has worked with Columbia County dispatch and provided the necessary information to update the dispatch database. Also, the Columbus DPW has a new sign ordered for West Avalon to correctly identify the street. Lifestar responded to four calls that paramedic skilled EMS providers made a huge difference in the outcome of the patient. • Call one was for a patient with significant respiratory difficulty. Upon arrival at the patient’ side, applying a CPAP mask (Continue Positive Airway Pressure) and adding medication alleviated the patient’s distress and went along way to shortening the patient’s stay in the emergency room. • Call two occurred just fifteen minutes after call one was completed. This patient had severe respiratory distress as well. CPAP was again administered with medication. Again, quick application of the therapy shortened the patient’s stay in the ER. • Call three was for a patient with chest pain. The cardiac monitor was applied that showed a cardiac rhythm disturbance of the atria called Supraventricular Tachycardia. The heart rate was over 220 per minute. The administration of a medication called adensosine reduced the heart rate to normal before arrival at the ER. • Call four was for a patient whose implanted defibrillator was firing off numerous times. The cardiac monitor was applied that showed the heart had a disturbance in the ventricles called Ventricular Tachycardia. A medication called Amiodarone was administered which settled the ventricles down and stopped the firing of the implanted defibrillator. Lifestar coordinated a mass casualty drill on June 22nd. The scenario was a chemical spill in Rhodes Bakery located off of highway 16 between Fall River and Columbus. I was pleased that Lifestar managed the drill using the accepted Incident Command structure. However, participation by patients and fire personnel from Fall River and Columbus was meager and affected some of the expected outcomes. The numbers were affected by the rainy weather, graduation parties and the Wisconsin Fire Chiefs Association Conference. All of the aforementioned activities were unknown at the time the drill was scheduled. However, Lifestar has now had some experience with working an incident that requires patient decontamination prior to EMS patient management. This was important so we are prepared for the large Columbus Chemical drill scheduled for 2014,

Source: http://www.caac.columbuswi.us/minutes/2013/Life%20Star%20Report.June%202013.pdf