Boy Scout Camp Health Officer

[GlockMedic]

EMTs and OTC medications at private property camps. I was recently hired by a large company to bring their First Aid up to speed. They have several EMTs who do give out several OTC meds. Its out of their California EMT Scope however the company does have written protocols for them to do this. The company has a PCP on the payroll who acts as the medical director and signs these protocols on a yearly basis.
This is on private property so I suspect it is not under the County EMS rules.
The EMTs treat employees of the company and public guests if needed.
Your thoughts are appreciated.

 

[johnrsemt]

Talk to the Medical Director of your primary job first to get his opinion; then talk to the State EMS department and get theirs (preferably on both of those conversations do it with the PCP for the camp on the call {either conference or speaker}) .
Then talk with the PCP of the camp and figure out what you can do.

The first year I was at the camp I talked to the PCP of the camp maybe 3 times, the 2nd year the only time we talked was during the pre camp training with the Medical staff from the other 6 camps he was PCP at. Our camp had different protocols than the other camps but out camp had 2 very experienced EMT-B's (one almost done with medic school) both had been there the year before, and 1 new EMT-B. The other camps had decent EMT-B's but none were repeats at a camp. The doctor had us teach the class, which was a surprise to us but useful to the others.

 

[GlockMedic]

Thank You Johnrsemt

 

[EMTinCT]

I work at one of these type of camps where the kids come for 3-4 nights. There is no medical director so the only thing I do is first aid and CPR, nothing in between. No RNs and no MDs are available which is frustrating. Because I am only an EMT and OTCs are not part of our protocols I can't give them anything even when a kid needs children's ibuprofen or children's tylenol. The best I can do is bring them to the clinic or ER. I asked the camp to find a physician in order to be the medical director but they are uninterested in "bringing things to that level".

In the end of the day I play it safe and only work within my level of training, but I sure wish I didn't have to bring a kid to an ER with an upset stomach when all they needed was some Pepto (and that's what the ER gave them).

 

[GlockMedic]

Lets change the job location.

You are an EMT at a local Amusement Park.
You do have a medical director who writes blanket protocols that include OTC Medications like Tylenol and Pepto for employees and guests of the park.

This Park is not part of the local EMS system and you care for the park guests and the employees.

In this position can an EMT-B give out OTC Meds with a written policy/protocol from a Medical Director.
And how about a Medic and LVN who all work for the same park doing the same job.

I know of EMTs that work in the ER and they do whatever the MD tells them to do and many of the things are not in the scope of an EMT.

Can we say that an EMT working in a "Non EMS" Field like a clinic, Amusement Park, or camp can do things out of their scope as long as there are signed protocols by a medical director for them to do it.

The entire scope of practice rule appears to change when not working for an EMS Agency "Fire, Ambulance, Lifeguard"

 

[CFal]

Yeah, I did this for a year. It was a fun job. I was the primary health officer at a small-ish camp. That meant that I was pretty much on duty / on call 24x7. That meant that when the other staff went out for a night off - I didn't get to go. And if I did, I had to stay sober, because I was back on duty when I got back. (Camp Director was an RN, and the Business Manger was a MFR - They were my backup)

I felt more like Mom and less like a EMT for most of the time. Most severe thing I saw was an impressive laceration to the thumb of my handicraft director. Went to our bigger, sister camp to have the Camp Doc sew him up. Think it was 6-8 stitches.

Other big issue I had to deal with was the constant threat of Norovirus. We'd closed one of our camps for 2 weeks the year before because of a Norovirus outbreak - so we were VERY cautious about not letting it happen again. It's something that should be on your mind with a population living in close proximity, especially with questionable hygiene on the part of some youth.

scouting.org/filestore/ppt/19-141.ppt is still current, as best I know. Medical forms are different, everything else seems correct.

My camp had written orders from our camp physician for many things - We had epi pens for use if needed, as well as a wide selection of OTC meds.

We had it interpreted that we were trained as a "Camp Health Officer", and acted under that, as opposed to our given certification.

Another comment - Dealing with camper's prescription meds is like opening Pandora's box. There is no right answer, but a bunch of ways that can work... or fail.

Yawgoog?

 

[CFal]

I worked at a BSA council High Adventure base and one of my roles was as Camp Medical Officer.

 

[eric600]

I'm a BSA camp med director. How much are emt-b's getting paid a week for medical coverage? I'm looking to encourage the council to hire their own instead of begging for volunteers each week. Any ideas? Thanks!

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