Physician involvement

[EMSdoc]

How involved have you seen your medical director? What does he/she do with your training? What have you found helpful?

 

[DesertMedic66]

Have never met my medical director. I only know his name and that's it.

 

[EpiEMS]

As a BLS person, I was fortunate to meet him twice at the ER. Other than that, wouldn't have met him if a nice (more senior) partner hadn't made the effort to introduce me.

More interaction would be most desirable.

 

[feldy]

Luckily i work for the city/ directly under the medical director. While he works at the hospital, he is also an employee of our agency and responds to calls on the street when needed or during special events.

We also have a ride along program with the emergency residents so we often meet and work side by side with our Medical Control Physicians at some point.

 

[Trashtruck]

How involved have you seen your medical director? What does he/she do with your training? What have you found helpful?

I know his name and what he looks like. He has no idea who I am. He's not involved with us. He does ZERO training with us(I'm not being harsh. I literally mean a big, fat doughnut of training).

Every few months, he will mail out some kind of 'reminder' about xyz. We 'can feel free to email with an questions or concerns regarding xyz', though.

All he requires of us is a valid EMT-P and CPR card. No NREMT-P, ACLS, PALS, NALS, PHTLS, alphabet soup, etc. Minimum con-ed required by state to maintain valid EMT-P card.

I think it would be helpful if he raised the bar a bit.

 

[NomadicMedic]

Our county medical directors both work in the ED. They know all of the medics by name. They're very involved in our training, taking part in our monthly con-ed, frequent Q&A at the hospitals, case review of interesting calls and involved in all intubation and priority 1 chart reviews. They're approachable in the ED, reachable by phone or email and think very highly of what we do. I guess we're pretty lucky in having the medical directors we do.

 

[DesertMedic66]

Our county medical directors both work in the ED. They know all of the medics by name. They're very involved in our training, taking part in our monthly con-ed, frequent Q&A at the hospitals, case review of interesting calls and involved in all intubation and priority 1 chart reviews. They're approachable in the ED, reachable by phone or email and think very highly of what we do. I guess we're pretty lucky in having the medical directors we do.

N7, are your medical directors company/agency based or county based? If I remember correctly your service is the only ALS in the county correct?

 

[NomadicMedic]

N7, are your medical directors company/agency based or county based? If I remember correctly your service is the only ALS in the county correct?

We're a county based third service, and we are the only ALS in the county. Both our med directors... actually, let me clarify, we have a med director and associate med director ... anyway, both are physicians at a local hospital and are employed on a part time basis, by the county, to serve as our medical directors.

 

[Trashtruck]

Our county medical directors both work in the ED. They know all of the medics by name. They're very involved in our training, taking part in our monthly con-ed, frequent Q&A at the hospitals, case review of interesting calls and involved in all intubation and priority 1 chart reviews. They're approachable in the ED, reachable by phone or email and think very highly of what we do. I guess we're pretty lucky in having the medical directors we do.

MONTHLY con-ed? We have con-ed once a year(remember...the minimum required by state).
Q&A at the hospitals? Never heard of it.
Chart reviews? CQI? HA! Cardiac arrest PCR's aren't even looked at. Until recently, some people didn't even bother to do PCR's.

I like the way your system runs and that your medical directors(we have one(1), and we are one of the busiest/largest systems in the U.S.) are so involved and have a higher standard. I believe the way that your medical directors are involved is the way it should be.

 

[mycrofft]

Before I retired, the last two medical directors had drug problems.

I swear it wasn't my fault.

 

[Clare]

The Clinical Director (Medical Director) is fantastic; he is an Intensive Care Medicine Specialist and he is very involved, approx half of his time is spent with St John; he does DVD lectures as part of National Diploma for the vollies and "train the Tutor" DVDs for CCE, he is always available via email and regularly sends out information through the Clinical Focus magazine; he is one of the nicest, most open and approachable people ever and is very straight forward.

The Medical Advisers (I believe there are only 2 now) are also great; I believe both are specialist Emergency Physicians and same goes for them, very approachable and involved.

 

[NomadicMedic]

MONTHLY con-ed? We have con-ed once a year(remember...the minimum required by state).
Q&A at the hospitals? Never heard of it.
Chart reviews? CQI? HA! Cardiac arrest PCR's aren't even looked at. Until recently, some people didn't even bother to do PCR's.

I like the way your system runs and that your medical directors(we have one(1), and we are one of the busiest/largest systems in the U.S.) are so involved and have a higher standard. I believe the way that your medical directors are involved is the way it should be.

We're hiring.

 

[DrankTheKoolaid]

Extremely active Medical Director in my area, and even more user friendly He is not only the LEMSA MD for my area but also a second large urban based system.
Plus he is the EMS commissioner for the state and voted EMS director of the year.

Oh yeah and is the very active Medical director for the Paramedic Program I instruct at. So he absolutely loves to teach and does so in all 3 of these areas.

Plus he is a partner in a company that does world wide education on MCI disaster and terrorist response.

Very very fortunate to have him as he actively fights to preserve the rural scope of practice.

 

[jpregulman]

I know mine quite well. He encourages us to email him clinical questions if we have them and is normally the person that answers the hospital online med control line. He also allows us to shadow him in the ER when ever we want; as well as putting us in touch with other agencies for rides such as Metro Life Flight (lots of fun)!

 

[Mariemt]

Mine is one of my Taekwondo instructors. Call Her Dr. in the hospital, first name outside of it. She rocks

 

[AlphaButch]

Three physicians on board (One ER, one cardiac, one pediatric). Mostly involved with setting policy/protocol and heavily involved in our QA/QI.

All of our transports are physician reviewed, so we know who is working due to the reasons our reports get kicked back or questioned. One's a grammar nazi, one is always pushing us to treat more in the field, and one just cares that we have billing information and signatures.

 

[BOSlife]

Medical director meetings are a required event of my paramedic program. Very informative sessions and helpful for reviewing documentation.

Check with your local county Public Safety department, generally the meetings are held monthly for EMS employees.