Starting a College EMS Service

[WuLabsWuTecH]

So I am writing this in procrastination for my first medical school exam, but I can't stare at muscles anymore!

So here's the thought: I am on a rather large campus, and I found out that there is no Campus EMS system here. Jokingly, while talking to the other EMTs in my MD class over lunch one day, we decided that we would start an EMS group. Well, one thing turned to another, and it turns out that 2 students in our class started Campus EMS at their undergrad institutions. One of the EM Profs got wind of our idea, and offered to be our medical director. He also sought out an EMS outreach group which may want to give us funding!

My question is, how do we proceed from here? Basically, besides the MD and some possible funding, I have me, and 3 other people with 911/ALS experience, a handful (maybe 4 or 5?) with campus EMS experience as just medical personnel (not leadership), and the 2 I mentioned that started their services, but while they will run with us if we get it started and will consult for us, they don't want to start another one.

I've got tons of thoughts about this, but no real direction. Assuming we get some sort of funding, what's next on the agenda?

Also, I was thinking of a mission statement of sorts, but wasn't even able to come up with that. Perhaps I need to take a step back and decide on what I want to accomplish? I know I wouldn't want to just run as an event standby, so perhaps we should start as a part time service? Also, being in a urban area, we already have medics that cover the school, so what's the justification for benefit to the campus? Clearly we'll get undergrads who are interested in EMS, and we'll be able to provide FA/CPR outreach and such, but short of saving individual students who call for help money, what does the campus as a whole get out of it?

So I guess my first question is: anyone have any idea how to proceed or would like to share the story of their Campus EMS Starting?

 

[Meursault]

I had already posted my stock response to this question, and then I noticed you were in med school. As always, talk to NCEMSF . I don't think they have any medical schools, but they know a lot more about the process.

Don't worry about a mission statement; you'll spend enough time BS'ing other people to get this to work, so there's no reason to start on yourself. Campus EMS in an urban setting still has a lot to offer students and the community. I'm surprised someone with real EMS experience missed what might be its biggest benefit: the city 911 provider doesn't have to come to campus for B(L)S calls. If you play your cards right, their field personnel will love you. The students get fast response times, care provided by their peers (who hopefully won't torture and humiliate them for being an inexperienced drinker), and free or subsidized rides. This is, of course, a recipe for abuse. Embrace it.

 

[usafmedic45]

MrConspiracy....I want to buy you a drink at next year's NCEMSF conference. LOL

 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

I had already posted my stock response to this question, and then I noticed you were in med school. As always, talk to NCEMSF . I don't think they have any medical schools, but they know a lot more about the process.

Don't worry about a mission statement; you'll spend enough time BS'ing other people to get this to work, so there's no reason to start on yourself. Campus EMS in an urban setting still has a lot to offer students and the community. I'm surprised someone with real EMS experience missed what might be its biggest benefit: the city 911 provider doesn't have to come to campus for B(L)S calls. If you play your cards right, their field personnel will love you. The students get fast response times, care provided by their peers (who hopefully won't torture and humiliate them for being an inexperienced drinker), and free or subsidized rides. This is, of course, a recipe for abuse. Embrace it.

That link has been down all day, but I'll look into it when it goes back up. I'm interested in seeing your canned response and I'm wondering how being a med student changes that at all. I feel like med students would probably have less time on their hands...

And yes, the load off of the city is a benefit, but I feel they would come anyways due to union rules. I'm on the only volunteer agency in the county right now (it's a very urban county) and even when we have a medic go, they will almost always send a second medic that is *their medic*. Union rules prohibit them from dispatching us if we do not have 2 paramedics on our rig that are getting paid at least minimum wage (in reality, a lot of the medics don't cash their checks or just sign it back over to the department).

The free rides would be a nice benefit, but to be quite honest, I was thinking with starting smaller-maybe just as a first responder service with EMT-B's onboard until we can get a rig. My understanding is that they are expensive!

 

[traumaluv2011]

I actually am at a college in Connecticut that we set up our EMS Club on campus a few years back. You pretty much have to start small. You know once you set up the club, have a few programs to raise awareness. You can have informational tables, give basic instructions for emergencies, sell first aid kits for dorms (this isn't a bad fundraiser), etc. If you have members that are trained as instructors for CPR or even basic first aid, that's not a bad idea either. There is a fire science club at our school and we collaborate on many events with them.

The club was established about 5 years ago and we finally made progress last year. We have earned the ability to do paid stand-bys at many of the school's major sporting events. We pretty much talked to the university presidential council as well as the local fire rescue squad. So what we have is two full trauma bags with oxygen and direct contact with the squad. Our insurance is covered by the rescue squad and for our funding we currently go through our student government.

Ultimately our goal is a campus EMS service, but the key points are going to be funding and insurance.

Funding because you're going to need you're own rig and have to be able to stock it. If you do join the NCEMSF, there are opportunities to make the money you need if the university is not willing to provide.

Obviously, you'll need A LOT of insurance and you'll need full support of the brass and major donors of the university in order to achieve that.

You just need to start small and work up to the big leagues. You're not going to be able to start an EMS service overnight.

I will keep you up to date on our progress and what might help you.

 

[Meursault]

My stock response is basically "Talk to NCEMSF. emt.dan will be along to fill you in some more." You've clearly put some thought into this, though.

The free rides would be a nice benefit, but to be quite honest, I was thinking with starting smaller-maybe just as a first responder service with EMT-B's onboard until we can get a rig. My understanding is that they are expensive!

After three years with a college BLS quick-response, I've decided that they're not all that useful unless they can prevent a 911 response and accurately triage/treat-and-release people or they're needed to cover during long response times. From the rest of your post, it sounds like you'll face a lot of obstacles. Is there any chance of contracting with a private service to take transports as needed? It'll involve a lot of fighting and some risk, and it does take away your biggest benefit, but if the county's going to send everybody for everything, there's no reason for you to exist. At least with a contract provider, you can give accurate response priorities and reduce the number of students pressured into going.

Along those lines, you need to think about whether a campus EMS service is needed and whether it can sustain itself. Is the university willing to pay for it? Is there someone powerful within the administration willing to fight for you? How does campus police/security feel about the idea? Can you train or recruit enough competent providers to fill the void left when your most-experienced people leave every year? How does the state feel about quick-response services?

 

[medicdan]

My stock response is basically "Talk to NCEMSF. emt.dan will be along to fill you in some more." You've clearly put some thought into this, though.


After three years with a college BLS quick-response, I've decided that they're not all that useful unless they can prevent a 911 response and accurately triage/treat-and-release people or they're needed to cover during long response times. From the rest of your post, it sounds like you'll face a lot of obstacles. Is there any chance of contracting with a private service to take transports as needed? It'll involve a lot of fighting and some risk, and it does take away your biggest benefit, but if the county's going to send everybody for everything, there's no reason for you to exist. At least with a contract provider, you can give accurate response priorities and reduce the number of students pressured into going.

Along those lines, you need to think about whether a campus EMS service is needed and whether it can sustain itself. Is the university willing to pay for it? Is there someone powerful within the administration willing to fight for you? How does campus police/security feel about the idea? Can you train or recruit enough competent providers to fill the void left when your most-experienced people leave every year? How does the state feel about quick-response services?

You're asking exactly the right questions. Some other thoughts to consider:

1) What are your plans for long-terms longevity? Broadening institutional memory beyond 2-4 years?
2) Role of Undergraduate students v other Grad v Med students
3) Greater legitimacy-- ambulance license? Charter with university/campus? Speak to Dean of Students/VP for Campus Operations/Dir. Public Safety? You are going to need to meet with the city Fire Chief at some point... role of FD in response? City 911 service? MCI planning? Mutual Aid?

The muse of Campus EMS management isn't hitting me right now, but if you're stuck or have any questions, just shoot me a PM.

 

[TheMowingMonk]

Starting a college EMS service is a hard but very rewarding service. I was actually an Operations officer for My college EMS service and have since helped programs at two other colleges get off the ground. But What Mr. Conspiracy says is right, the best reason for a college based EMS service is to deter 911 calls from the campus. I know the local fire department at my school loved us for that because we save them many minor calls. and I second talking to NCEMSF, there is an endless amount of resources and information that organization has, as well as their yearly conference which is also a wealth of good EMS information.

 

[medicdan]

I know the local fire department at my school loved us for that because we save them many minor calls.

You should be prepared for the opposite to be true as well...the fire department may do everything in their power to crush you-- because they want, they need the call volume from your campus to justify their existence as first responders...

 

[silver]

You should be prepared for the opposite to be true as well...the fire department may do everything in their power to crush you-- because they want, they need the call volume from your campus to justify their existence as first responders...

I have determined that many of the campus 911 calls are almost free money for both the transport agency and ED (as long as there is no vomit involved). Also be aware that other people on campus may not appreciate what you are doing. I have heard of police unions attempting to block student EMS organizations (including one instance of threatening arrest), because of the possibility of reducing their call volume/overtime.

I highly recommend you make friends with someone in the upper administration. Ask him/her to be an advisor. From then on they will act as an advocate for you.

 

[TheMowingMonk]

You should be prepared for the opposite to be true as well...the fire department may do everything in their power to crush you-- because they want, they need the call volume from your campus to justify their existence as first responders...

I guess were lucky in that our fire department is still a busy enough station without us, and being that we are a BLS service they still get activated if a transport or ALS is needed. Out fire department has gone as far as to participate in out drill and critique our squad and give us donations of old equipment. But I would say ether way having a campus based service that works with the fire department would always be the best option.

 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

Hey guys,

Thanks for all of the suggestions! So this is where we are at right now:

- The police seems to be liking our idea so far, but they have more questions about the details
- a recently retired batallion chief met with us and gave his opinion of what he thinks the brass there would think (basically as long as we're not running mutual aid into their turf and they still run as the ALS for us we'd be good)
- we have a medical director and a polished rough draft for protocol/standing orders

Basically I was told that at this point, I need to draft a proposal so that the police department here as well as the surroundings municipalities can take a look at it and critique it and tell us what would need to change so that we could get started. The one thing I still haven't found out though is who needs to approve this whole thing. I'm wondering if the police come on board with this, if we might just be able to run under their auspices?

 

[94H]

Depending on what the regulations are like out there in Ohio, you might be able to run the service under the auspices of the campus Police. I know at my school our QRS is licensed by the state, but not recognized by the county.

The city is happy to have us since we run most of the refusals before calling them in and they still get all of the transports that they normally would. We are a QRS though, and this is all before the new EMS act starts to affect us.

I know when we looked into buying an ambulance one of the main concerns of the city that we are located in was that our call volume was too low for us to be able to maintain an ambulance and to maintain our skills.

FYI we were looking at something like 300 calls an academic year with maybe 100 transports.