RE: Paramedic procedures and charting

["John L. Meade, MD" <jmeade@statdoc.com>]

I am the former medical director of the rotorwing program in Pensacola, FL.
In that program, flight nurses and paramedics were considered equivalent,
and took turns charting, etc. They were given similar responsibilities and
were held to the same standards. We did, of course, recognize that certain
individuals might have greater expertise in certain situations. For example,
in general, the flight medic might take the lead for assisting with
extrication, whereas the flight nurse might take the lead on a complex ICU
transfer.

We felt this was an excellent way to run the program. Of course, we never
tried it a different way, so maybe someone else has a better idea.

JM

John L. Meade, MD, FACEP
Chief Executive Officer
Emerald Healthcare Group, P.A.
Doctor's Resource Group, Inc.
http://www.statdoc.com/

-----Original Message-----
From: DRDR0682@aol.com [mailto:DRDR0682@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2001 09:58
To: Flightmed@flightweb.com
Subject: Paramedic procedures and charting

 Dear Listers:
       I am the Medical Director of Flight fo Life (a rotor-wing only
program) in Colorado Springs, CO. I am interested in getting responses from
any crew member or medica director with current or past experience flying
with a Flight RN/Flight Paramedic configuration, to the following questions
:

       Do you allow the paramedics to do chest tubes or central lines or
venous cut downs?

        If not, do you allow flight nurses to do these procedures?  If you
don't allow paramedics to do these procedures, but do allow nurses to do
them
- what is your reasoning?

        Are flight paramedics generally regarded as subordinate members of
the flight team?  Is equal responsibility shared between nurses and medics
for successes and problems in patient care?

       Do you allow paramedics to chart on patients?  If so, under what
circumstances?  Do you believe that your program and your nurses have a
greater degree of liability when paramedics are allowed to chart?

       Do you know of any national standard or guidelines that exist for
regarding the scope of procedures flight paramedics can do and / or
paramedic
charting?  If so, can you refer me to it?

Thanks in advance,
Dave Ross


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