MERGINET's February 18 Release On-line Now!

["Richard Bilger" <rbilger@merginet.com>]

We're pleased to bring you the latest additions to
MERGINET.News (Vol. 6, No. 2). You can view this
issue online at:

http://www.merginet.com
Select "MERGINET.News" or "Current Issue" from
the navigation menu's.

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FROM THE EDITOR:
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It’s time to click on MERGINET.News and see what’s new!

Our Latest Features

* Mental Health Assessments by paramedics -- a routine thing in
Todd Talbert’s   California system. This innovative idea could
save communities lots of money, and also serves an important
purpose.
* EMS in Other Places -- Read our account of how EMS is done in
Israel.
* EMS trailblazer, Keith Neely, is remembered.

See what else we have for you at MERGINET, your original
“Worldwide Website of Emergency Responders”! And please take a
minute to send Reader Feedback. We write back to everyone, and
always appreciate your thoughts, ideas and compliments!

Warm regards, Kate Dernocoeur, Editor
mailto:kate@merginet.com

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New in this issue!

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Features
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>> KEITH NEELY
 — by Kate Dernocoeur
Paramedic, author, newly conferred Ph.D., and EMS expert Keith
Neely died January 28, 2001 in Portland, Oregon, of melanoma, the
day after his 51st birthday. A former paramedic, Keith was most
recently employed as Associate Professor at Oregon Health
Sciences University (OHSU), in the department of Emergency
Medicine. According to his wife, Claire Cavanaugh, he taught
various courses, including health policy and EMS research.

>> THE ROLE OF A MENTAL HEALTH ASSESSMENT TECHNICIAN-PARAMEDIC
 — by Todd Talbert
As a cost containment measure in 1989, the County of Santa
Barbara in California discontinued its relationship with a
private psychiatric crisis team that managed acute mental health
emergencies in the field, most of which originated from the 911
emergency response system. However, local mental health
administrators felt that elimination of field-based care for
mentally ill people would have a detrimental ripple effect within
the local public health system.


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Medic Life
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>> IN HIS OWN WORDS: A PRIMER ON ISRAELI EMS
 — by Alon Smolarski
The Israeli equivalent to the American Red Cross is "Magen David
Adom" (MDA), which was founded in the mid-1930s. MDA is not only
our local "Red Cross Society" but is also responsible for the
provision of EMS to the entire country. In order to achieve this
mission, MDA is funded partly by the Ministry of Health and
partly by the local government. In addition, funds are collected
from patients (who are refunded by our local Medicare system).

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Educators Corner
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>> TIPS FROM THE BEST
 — by John Mateus
I know dozens of excellent instructors. So rather than go on
about my own preferences in this month's column, I decided to
solicit one solid tip from three great instructors, and offer
comment on their responses. I posed the question: "If you had to
pass on one important piece of advice to a brand new instructor,
what would that be?"

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Columns
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>> INFECTION CONTROL TODAY: WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR CLEANING EMS
EQUIPMENT LEFT AT THE HOSPITAL?
 — by Katherine West
The question regarding who is responsible for cleaning EMS
equipment left with the patient at the hospital has been asked
many times over the years. On June 28, 2000, my company, IC/EC,
posed this very question to the Occupational Safety & Health
Administration (OSHA) office of health compliance. The question
was posed from a national rather than state level. The official
answer arrived October 4, 2000.

>> LAW BYTES: IF YOU'RE COMING HERE, WE CAN'T TAKE YOU!
 — by Steve Wirth
The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act of 1986,
commonly known as EMTALA or the Anti-Dumping Law, was intended to
prevent hospitals from "dumping" indigent patients. The law is
there to protect all patients, though, and not just the indigent.

>> THE IMPACT OF COMPUTERIZED MAPS ON AMBULANCE DISPATCH RESPONSE
TIMES IN EASTERN ONTARIO, CANADA
 — by K. McLelland, G. Jones, and W. Pickett
Ambulance dispatchers in Eastern Ontario, Canada, currently use
geographic maps in hard copy formats. Concern has been raised
that this system impairs the ability of the dispatchers to
expeditiously identify call locations and notify the closest
resources for priority 4 (threat to life or limb) calls.
Implementation of a computerized mapping system may lead to
improvements in dispatch times.

>> STRENGTH IN NUMBERS
 — by Don Hunjadi
Years ago, many neighboring EMS services were rivals or even
enemies, much like competing high school football teams.
Thankfully, this has tended to change over the years.

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Management Matters
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>> FOR ADMINISTRATORS: THE CHALLENGE OF STRATEGIC PLANNING
 — by Lauren Simon Ostrow and John Becknell
In many EMS organizations, the budgeting process isn't driven by
careful planning or by a comprehensive understanding of current
and future market forces. It's driven by last year's experiences,
fear of the future, and the current squeaky wheels. This makes
the whole budgeting process reactive, rather than proactive.

>> TOO MUCH TO DO! MANAGING MULTIPLE PRIORITIES
 — by Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
Every priority claims itself as the most urgent and crucial thing
in the world, and screams for your immediate attention. The
problem is, we can only do one thing at a time. Here are four
nifty ideas to help you to manage multiple priorities.

More online!

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Click here: http://www.MERGINET.com/index-news.htm

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MERGINET is a service designed to provide resources, news,
education and fun to the all in EMS, Fire, Rescue and Emergency
Medicine. Updated daily.
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